Trinchieri opens the book of Mirotic, explains the only thing he didn't like / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Imago Images - Scanpix Credit Imago Images - Scanpix

Andrea Trinchieri has only one regret after losing the Game 3 of the EuroLeague playoffs series against FC Barcelona, which put the Catalans ahead 2-1.

Player of the Game EFF 31 Nikola Mirotic Points 25 Accuracy 8-11 Rebounds 6 Assists 3

FC Bayern Munich prevailed against the regular-season winners 66-75 and put themselves in a do-or-die situation before Friday.

But as Trinchieri repeats, the series is not over yet.

Barca were mad after the Game 2 loss at Palau Blaugrana. They jumped off, building an early double-digit lead of 18-5, and sucked all the excitement from the packed Audi Dome.

Nicolas Laprovittola punished Leon Radosevic on the switch and drained three first-quarter 3-pointers.

Nikola Mirotic started his shift on the low post early, either kicking the ball out efficiently or going to the line. He made all 6 free throws in the first 8 minutes of the game.

The game went Barcelona's way. Bayern stayed in the game behind second-chance opportunities with four offensive rebounds in the 1st quarter. But they were outsmarted and outphysicalled at the beginning. The determination was different than in Game 2.

"Guys, we’re missing every possible thing, "Trinchieri tried to calm down his players during the time-out. "We're attacking, missing layups. We are good. We are good!"

They weren’t good yet, and Barcelona continued building the lead.

Nick Calathes sent these parachute passes under the rim and kept his bigs fed. Next to Mirotic, Rolands Smits dominated the paint with eight second-quarter points.

The difference kept growing (39-22).

"Nobody is pressing the ball, guys. Nobody is pressing the ball!" Trinchieri complained in the following time-out. "Then we miss everything possible, and they’re making shots. We have to shorten the gap. Stay mentally in the f*cking game. Stay in the game!"

Credit Begum Unal

Points this season

50%82,3Points made:82,3Accuracy:49,7%Place in standings:2Record max:111Record min:64Best scorer:Nikola MiroticTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

"We had a very bad first half," Trinchieri admitted later after the game. "The only thing I really didn't like was that we let frustration become a factor. We opened the game very badly, giving 9 points to Laprovittola and six free throws to Mirotic. Then the mountain to climb became Everest."

They tried, though.

Bayern came with different energy after the halftime. Players were diving for the ball, stopped the flow of Barca's offense thanks to active hands, and didn't give anything easy to their guests.

The excitement came back to Audi Dome.

Suddenly, Bayern got the momentum and started reducing the gap. It put both crowd and the whole bench on heels.

Othello Hunter kicked out the ball beyond the arc to Nick Weiler-Babb, who sent it to the corner where Vladimir Lucic set himself up for an open three.

Nick Calathes was late to prevent Bayern's forward from taking the shot and just turned back to the rim to see if that was coming through the net.

Bayern just overcame an 18-point deficit (39-57) and were close to getting the game back to single-digits seconds before the fourth quarter (47-59).

Lucic was the top scorer for Bayern that night (17 PTS), but his 3-pointer hit the rim, which caused a big sigh of disappointment in the Audi Dome.

"We fought. We came back, and we had a chance. We had the momentum with a corner three of Lucic with a very good ball movement. We didn't make that shot, and in the end, they were better, and they deserved to win," Trinchieri said after the game.

Nikola Mirotic extinguished the last hope of Bayern fans.

He started the fourth quarter with 11 consecutive points and restored a safe 16-point lead (72-56).

He finished the game with 25 points on 8 of 11 shooting. That was his highest-scoring performance in the EuroLeague playoffs.

“I don't know if there's a specific answer. Maybe a wrong rotation, a slow rotation, or we didn't bump on that screen," Trinchieri tried to answer how Mirotic took off for one of the season's best games.

In the first two games at Palau Blaugrana, Mirotic averaged 14 points, but made only 38% of his shots, turned the ball over 2.5 times per game, and averaged 10.5 PIR.

By his standards, Mirotic was contained pretty decently.

"I would say often great players play as great players. I believe Mirotic played as the best four-man of the entire EuroLeague tonight," Trinchieri explained his breakout performance in Game 3.

Top 10 best-paid EuroLeague players: how much Mirotic, Larkin make?

"He showcased to us why he has that kind of contract and that kind of role. Sometimes we should maybe make a couple of rotations better, press the ball more, and have a different angle. All true. But there’s also an opponent who played a great game," Trinchieri praised the front-runner for winning the MVP award.

"We were very good against him in the first game. The truth is that the best way to play against Mirotic is to be aggressive on offense against him. Deshaun Thomas tonight didn't find the rhythm. Then this opens the other book: 'How to Guard Nikola Mirotic'," Trinchieri told BasketNews.

After the 25-point performance in Game 2, Thomas scored 4 points on 2 of 9 shooting.

It went against the rules of this Mirotic book.

"Sometimes, the best way to guard a player is what you do on offense against him. Especially against this kind of caliber player," Trinchieri explained. "He was amazing. Sometimes you have to say he was better than everybody.”

"I hope we would have a better first half. That didn't happen. But the team fought. We tried to come back, but we didn't have the luck to make threes. It's almost impossible to play when you shoot threes 4 of 24 against the team that has more size. But we went on the line, we outrebounded Barca (35-30)," Trinchieri said. "We’re in a series."

Bayern's 3-point shooting percentage was the worst this season (16%). That was also the second lowest-scoring home game for Bayern this year.

According to Trinchieri, Barca's physicality from the jump ball had a lot to do with these low numbers.

Barca had the top 5 defensive rating in the regular season for a reason.

"This is how they play. They were very good at putting the game on the physical level on everything, by holding, coming off, and not giving us a chance to get any speed with a lot of contact," Trinchieri said.

"Congrats to Barca, they were better. More physical. Very physical. Every screen was really to the limit. But I appreciate the second half a lot," Trinchieri told in the press conference.

Credit Begum Unal

"I'm not desperate. I'm not overwhelmed. It is exactly how I expected the game," Trinchieri added.

"I told before the game you need armor, but our armor was too light. But feeling impossible... No. this is still a basketball game, and we played against the first team in the rankings. We competed, we played hard, and they were better," Trinchieri said.

"Sometimes you really need to go down to earth and look at what you're opponents are doing. There are two teams. There's also an opponent team that played better. We played better a second game, and they played better today. Still, they're favorites, and we're underdogs with our players out."

Bayern's guard Corey Walden, who was out for two months already, still couldn't join his teammates. Bayern's top scorer Darrun Hilliard is likely out for the season due to an injury he suffered in the playoffs opener. Paul Zipser, another important Bayern player, is sidelined as well.

Bayern will host Game 4 on Friday.

"You take your backpack full of shit, you go home. You face the shit. You try to find a solution. You try to look at what can work. You have to come here tomorrow to convince your players that they can be better than this. And move on. This is how it is," Trinchieri explained what awaits him in the upcoming two days before the decisive game.

"The position of the coaches is that you're feeling very lonely with this backpack after the game. You have to open this backpack, put your hand in the dirt of the game, look at the small things, try to understand what's next to do better, and prepare your time," Trinchieri continued.

"We're in the series. It won't be easy. But if you ask me, what is the only thing you want to take away from this game, is the frustration of the first half. We can't play like this. We don't have a chance like this," he emphasized.

Like what we are doing? Support us by becoming BN+ member.