'It's a disaster': Serbian stars react to the loss against Italy / News - Basketnews.com

Vanja Marinkovic, Vasilije Micic, Vladimir Lucic, and Nikola Kalinic delivered their view on the painful loss against Italy.

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Shock, sadness, disappointment, disaster... these are the words used by Serbian basketball players after their elimination from EuroBasket 2022 in the Round of 16.

Player of the Game EFF 27 Marco Spissu Points 22 Accuracy 7-11 Rebounds 4 Assists 6

For the first time in history, Serbia lost to Italy at EuroBasket. Although Serbia had game control for the most part of the match, the Italians kicked into a higher gear in the second half with Marco Spissu leading the huge comeback.

After the painful defeat, Serbian players looked into this tragic result more extensively.

"I don't know what to say, it's a disaster. Italians gave everything on the court. Spissu and Polonara found a rhythm and made their usual shots... come on. We didn't score a basket for a few minutes. It's a disaster," Vanja Marinkovic told Mozzart Sport.

Back-to-back EuroLeague champ, Vasilije Micic, continued his teammate's words.

"We stopped, there was no determination, no confidence to take the shots. We played tight, and then they went on a crazy streak, especially Marco Spissu, who had an incredible night," Micic stressed.

Italy took advantage of all Serbia's weaknesses despite the fantastic game of Nikola Jokic.

"They played strong defense. They have a style of play that doesn't suit us, but that's not an excuse. We had a positive result, but we were somehow stopped.

It wasn't easy to play for Nikola Jokic too. They prepared for him even though he scored 32 points. The rest of us had to take responsibility, we had to do better," added the Anadolu Efes star guard.

Nikola Kalinic joined his teammates as well, noting the crazy Italians' pace.

"We don't know what happened either. They hit a lot of shots, kudos to them. They got us into their rhythm. Lots of three-point attempts, lots of madness..."

Serbian captain Vladimir Lucic concluded all the reactions to this elimination.

"We got nervous, missed open shots. They made their shots from behind the arc and got confident. We are in great disappointment, it's a tough loss.

Italy gave us a lot of problems, we didn't manage to execute the Pick and Pop situations. They scored a lot of points from outside, while we missed a lot of three-point shots. That's the difference," Lucic finished the statements.

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