Itoudis praises Giannis' leadership, explains Greece's offensive style / News - Basketnews.com

Dimitris Itoudis broke down Greece's game against Italy, emphasizing the elements that helped his team get their second EuroBasket victory.

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Greece saw Italy bounce back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter, but still managed to hold on to their lead and ultimately take their second win in their EuroBasket group in Milan.

Player of the Game EFF 30 Giannis Antetokounmpo Points 25 Accuracy 8-15 Rebounds 11 Assists 3

In the post-game presser, coach Dimitris Itoudis had a lot of things to say about his team's approach to the contest, with regards to how Greece overcame the obstacles in doing battle with the group's hosts.

"I want to congratulate my team on the win. We stayed competitive and refused to step back," the Greek tactician said,

"Unfortunately, our bad moments allowed Italy to come back. Italy were playing small-ball, with five men out and great shooters in Melli and Polonara. We had some challenges having big bodies out there.

In the end, we lost the rebounding battle. I didn't like our ball movement, but we'll learn from that. The good thing is that (Giorgos) Papagiannis is back."

In fact, Italy outrebounded Greece 42-38 and 15-7 on the offensive glass. That didn't prevent Greece from winning another one since both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tyler Dorsey were once again unstoppable.

The Bucks superstar had 25 points on 8/15 from the field, and 11 rebounds, while the guard from Oregon boasted a scoring production of 23 points on 6/10 field-goal shooting, close to his recent scoring high with the national team.

Asked about Giannis, Itoudis called him "an extremely motivated and high-level player, who can do many things."

"The fact that he's a great teammate makes him unique. He leads by example in many areas. Basketball is a game, but this is a sports society. When you respect the game and your teammates, you can set the example for the difficult times we're going through,' he added.

Credit FIBA

Greece / Schedule

Croatia Greece85-89 Greece Italy85-81 Great Britain Greece77-93 Greece UkraineTue15:00 Estonia GreeceThu15:00

Itoudis has chosen a style of play that facilitates free flow on offense and players having certain freedom to go one-on-one or decide in some situations. However, he thinks everything is a matter of good spacing.

"We are a team with players who can facilitate their teammates," he pointed out.

"Giannis, Nick, Tyler are some of them. I would be stupid to pull back a team with that quality. That's why I always say we need to become a real team. We have so many early offense options that we have to use. It's not only about freedom. It's about spacing and positioning," he repeated.

According to the experienced tactician, watching one's players be competitive on the court can render any coach proud.

"Being competitive even though you're hurt or when things are going south is not given. You need to bring that to the team. We don't want to lose it. We have smart players, but we need to communicate better. Tonight, we took a step towards that."

Itoudis emphasized that for a second straight night, his side lost the lead, adding that "no one is alone on the court. We have three more big teams to beat."

With Greece currently standing at 2-0 and having beaten both Croatia and Italy, it looks like their way to EuroBasket's final stage in Berlin has already been paved to a great extent. However, Itoudis is having none of it. He recalled that the German city is where he won his first EuroLeague trophy as a head coach in 2016, but guiding his national team there can wait for now.

"Berlin is a great city and I have many good memories. But we're in Milan now, focusing on Milan's games," he said.

Greece, obligated to make do without their two leading big men, Giorgos Papagiannis and Kostas Antetokounmpo, have found ways to circumvent their lack of bodies. In that respect, they do bear a resounding resemblance to Italy's five-out and small-ball tactics that Gianmarco Pozzecco has been forced to implement.

"Italy have shown that they're a high-energy team. So, we had to choose what we should contain the most. So, we chose to switch on defense. That gave us the chance to risk, which you have to calculate because one of your bigs will be guarding the perimeter.

The risk we took was in our advantage because our guards and forwards really helped. I give Italy a lot of credit for never giving up. It was a great atmosphere."

Forward Ioannis Papapetrou, who's still struggling to get into game rhythm after missing the biggest part of Greece's prep games and both World Cup qualifying games, called the game vs. Italy "a hard-fought, entertaining game in a full arena."

"We took the lead, but Italy came back to the game. In the end, we showed our fighting spirit and won the game," he commented.

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