Ettore Messina admits Milan's EuroLeague season is in jeopardy / News - Basketnews.com

Despite an emotional reaction from his team, Olimpia Milan head coach Ettore Messina acknowledged the fact that bouncing back from the current situation in the EuroLeague will be extremely difficult.

Credit: Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images Credit Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images

The character and the intentions were good, but EA7 Emporio Armani Milan couldn't end their losing streak. It was the sixth loss in a row for the Italian champions, and even though it wasn't a humiliating loss like the one against Anadolu Efes, the substance doesn't change.

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan / Schedule

Zalgiris Kaunas EA7 Emporio Armani Milan71-62 EA7 Emporio Armani Milan Anadolu Efes Istanbul51-80 EA7 Emporio Armani Milan Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul72-82 Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz EA7 Emporio Armani Milan12-0119:30

After the game, head coach Ettore Messina shared his thoughts and revealed that trying to recover from the current situation would be extremely difficult for his team.

"Creating advantages is not easy for us right now. There are several things that make us think we have a long road ahead, but the problem is that EuroLeague doesn't wait for you. We can't hide it. Right now, the EuroLeague season is in jeopardy for us," Messina said after the game.

"So right now, we can only do small things, approaching the situation step by step. Not losing any ground in the Italian league will be important. Next week we'll have Baron back, the week after, maybe we'll recover Tonut, and we'll move on from there."

Messina also revealed that he's missing some of his players' input, pointing out that players must step up while others are injured.

"Some of our players need to do more than what they're currently doing because we're missing too many players," Messina said after the game. "As of right now, we have several shooters out, and that has been an issue since the beginning of the season."

"Tonight, once again, we missed too many layups under the basket. We're not fighting through contact, we had too many turnovers, there's a lot of things that are not working right now, and that makes me think that it will take some time to recover from it," Messina continued.

The Italian head coach added that he tried something new by playing Nicolo Melli in the center position. However, it was not enough.

Points this season

41%68,3Points made:68,3Accuracy:40,8%Place in standings:18Record max:83Record min:51Best scorer:Nazareth Mitrou-LongTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

"Tonight, I tried to have a little bit more versatility with Melli as number 5. We had more spacing offensively, which sometimes worked, but it wasn't enough. Now, we need to keep working," Messina said.

In addition to the loss, Milan has to deal with a new injury. Kevin Pangos, who's already struggling to find his best form, suffered a knee injury and looks like he might miss some time.

"We're concerned about Pangos' situation. He couldn't bend his knee," Messina specified. "Tomorrow, we'll do an MRI, but it looks like a serious injury. Of course, this doesn't help us. It is already a depressed environment inside the locker room, and the injuries certainly don't help improve the situation."

"I can't complain about the effort of the players. The effort is there, yesterday, we did additional training to try some things, which is something we usually don't do when we have two very close games.

But we need to show more character. That's a key. We cannot afford the luxury of being depressed, but, understandably, some players can feel a little bit down right now," Messina concluded.

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