Jaleen Smith feels already in sync with Croatia: 'Coach is giving me a lot of freedom' / News - Basketnews.com

After the big win against Great Britain, Jaleen Smith spoke to BasketNews and explained that his adjustment process to the Croatian national team is going smoothly

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

After a very intense battle against Greece in the first game, which ended up in a loss, Croatia reacted promptly today and defeated Great Britain 86-65, securing their first win of EuroBasket.

Croatia / Schedule

Croatia Greece85-89 Great Britain Croatia65-86 Croatia EstoniaMon12:15 Italy CroatiaTue19:00 Croatia UkraineThu12:15

After a first half in which Croatia didn't look particularly inspiring, the team coached by Damir Mulaomerovic took over the game in the third quarter, when they scored 35 points and dug an insurmountable furrow for Great Britain.

After the shooting difficulties shown against Spain, Dario Saric looked much more comfortable on the court, finishing with 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists, slowly trying to find his groove after missing the entire season due to a knee injury.

In the loss against Greece, Jaleen Smith had been the top scorer for Croatia with 23 points and 50% from three-point. In today's game against Great Britain, Smith focused more on defense and finding his teammates, finishing the game with 3 points, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 1 rebound.

But that's all part of the freedom that Jaleen Smith is receiving from coach Mulaomerovic, as the player explained to BasketNews after the game.

"I think my adjustment process is going great", Smith told us. "Coach is giving me a lot of freedom, he tells me to just play my game, it doesn't matter what happens. For example, yesterday I had a lot of freedom offensively, today I was more of a defensive guy. So I'm just trying to do whatever the team needs from me in every situation, if I can give a contribution in that way, that's just great".

Smith was particularly satisfied with how the team played in the second half. Croatia had scored 37 points in the entire first half, they had 35 in the third quarter only, an offensive performance that decisively directed the game.

"In the second half, we played faster and with more aggressiveness", Smith told BasketNews. "Our defense got turnt up a little bit, we started to get more into their sets and so they couldn't execute much. And the defensive work fed our offense, so everything became easier for us".

After the day off on Sunday, Croatia will face Estonia on Monday when they'll try to secure an important win to be better positioned for the qualification to the second phase.

Coach Mulaomeric is aware that the game is not gonna be easy but at least his players will have a full day to rest.

"I think there were moments today in which we felt a bit of fatigue from yesterday's game because it was very intense and we finish late", the coach explained during the post-game conference. "But we did a good job in the second half and the ones that played less against Greece gave a big help to the others".

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