Post-game press conference of team coaches

Post-game press conference of team coaches

After the game between Spartak and Triumph the teams’ head coaches commented on the game and answered the journalists’ questions.

Zvi Sherf (head coach of BC Spartak): “We won the second game in a row; more so, this time we won in the championship. Today we played better than in the previous game but I’m disappointed with the fact that we failed to keep the 10-15 point difference. Of course, we played 4 games during the last 2 weeks and we had only 3 days to get ready for the game. Still we kept saying that we should not allow the Triumph players three-point dashes, some of them could not be stopped but in some cases they could be avoided, this is the issue of defense.  We played too differently throughout the game. In the fourth quarter we play not so well as in the first three quarters, and this is, to a great deal, connected with lack of confidence of some players during the fourth quarter. We will discuss the matter with them.
We are a team, which should not allow our opponent to score too much. Today we allowed the opponent to score 41 points in the first half of the game, this is too much, and this figure is explained, among other factors, by a great number of the opponents’ three-point moves.  At the same time we scored 80 points, which is even more than in the previous games. 
Currently the team will have two days off: it needs rest after such intensive schedule of games and training sessions. Starting from Saturday we will begin getting ready for the game with Dynamo.  We intend to win the game and go up from the last position in the tournament table.

- Are you disappointed with James White’s performance in the playmaker’s position?
- I think he could do better. But we have no other option. In any case we need a replacement for Levans.  Kolesnikov showed that he is much more useful in the position of attacking defender than in the position of a playmaker.  I believe that White will play number one much better by the key games in the end of the season.  Probably we put too much pressure upon James but, in my opinion, there is no other player in our team who could be the second playmaker.   
- Do you see Alexey Zozulin as playmaker?
- No, Alexey plays either number three or number four”.

Stanislav Eremin (head coach of BC Triumph): “Today, as we expected, the game was difficult. We let the Spartak players go too far in the third ten-minute period.  The moment when Spartak gained a big score difference, probably became the point of no return, the moment, which did not allow us to win.  We allowed annoying slips at that time, and further it was too difficult to correct the difference.  
It is already the third or the fourth time when we lose in the end. I cannot say that we make some principal mistakes but the fact is that even though we keep fighting we still lose. Obviously this is the membership of our team for today that is responsible for the number of mistakes in simple situations but occasionally we bring up performance, which we are not ashamed of.
My congratulations to Spartak on their victory. I think it is very important to them”. 

- At the 15 point difference you planned to let in the young players, in particular  you instructed Valiev to start warming up?
- No, I sent Valiev to start warming up because by that time there were 4 falls of Likhodey and 3 falls of Vialtsev. Valiev was warming up and was supposed to come out in an extraordinary situation.  At that time we caught the game and there was no point in changing the players.