Ettore Messina: 'To lose like that is unbelievable and painful' / News - Basketnews.com

Ettore Messina is satisfied with the way Armani Milan's players responded for the most part in the game against Panathinaikos, even though his team dropped their 8th straight game in EuroLeague.

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If EA7 Emporio Armani Milan had a solid chance to snap their EuroLeague losing streak, the game against Panathinaikos in Athens looked like a golden opportunity.

As the hosts were coming off the Greek derby vs. Olympiacos on Monday night and Nate Wolters was added to the list of absentees, Ettore Messina saw his team make light work of Sassari in the Italian league last weekend (92-63) and deliver a more than decent performance at OAKA on Thursday.

Alas, the Italian side somehow found a way to lose another game, wasting a 15-point lead, and missing several opportunities to seal the win in the closing minutes. Their losing streak extended to eight games, which is very close to their all-time negative record (10 losses) that holds sway since 2016-17.

However, in contrast to what happened after other outings, like the one against Efes (51-80), this time around, Ettore Messina mostly praised his team on the way it responded on the court for the most part.

"Congratulations to Panathinaikos," the Italian coach said in the postgame presser.

"They kept believing in the win, although it didn't look good for them. We played a good game for 37-38 minutes. We did the right things. We moved the ball and found good shots. We finished with 22 assists."

Milan did everything wrong at the end of regulation - missed shots, turnovers, bad defenses, and questionable decisions sentenced the Italian champs to another defeat, in a gym where they had pulled out three wins in their last four games.

"It's unbelievable. To lose like that is unbelievable," Messina continued.

"To lose like that is really painful. Our decisions on offense and execution in the last two minutes weren't the best," he admitted.

Credit Vangelis Stolis

"We missed a couple of great opportunities from the free-throw and the three-point line, and from underneath. At the same time, we gave some easy buckets to them."

The three-time EuroLeague-winning coach said he hopes his team "will learn to play in crunch time. We have to take the good things out of our 37 minutes and keep working."

Playing without key players like Kevin Pangos, Gigi Datome and Shavon Shields has become a habit for Milan. But Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot came in. The Frenchman had one of his better games in the season at OAKA, but his presence was catastrophic for Milan when things mattered the most. The 27-year-old forward missed two open shots and committed an offensive foul on Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, allowing Panathinaikos to lead the game to overtime.

From that point on, the guests simply collapsed, conceding 18 points in five minutes.

"I think we've improved since Luwawu-Cabarrot joined us. He's a very important piece for us, even when Pangos, Datome, and Shields will be back," Messina said.

Credit BNS

It's clear that the experienced tactician is happy with the team's progress and also hopeful that better days are just around the corner.

"We've played a few good games in the Italian league, especially in the last two-three weeks. It's difficult because the frustration is there. All players have great experience and would like to overcome the difficulties," he pointed out.

According to Messina, the maindifference with last year is that in 2021-22, Milan had some injuries and Dinos Mitoglou's doping case was added to the problems while being 3-4 months into the season.

"The team was already formed and was having some success," he recalled. "This year, problems started from day one. We didn't have time to create stronger cohesion as a team.

I can't complain about the effort. It's there every day in games and practices. We just a little bit of luck and poise in crunch time," he concluded.

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