Trinchieri defends Zdovc, praises Lucic and Thomas: 'The best medicine to heal is always a win' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: D.Repečka/BasketNews.lt Credit D.Repečka/BasketNews.lt

"Left? Right? Middle?" Andrea Trinchieri asked Zalgiris press officer when he entered the press conference room. "Middle," a longtime Zalgiris worker responded. "Okay, no politics," FC Bayern Munich coach added. He had many reasons to smile because of his first EuroLeague win this season.

Player of the Game EFF 20 Vladimir Lucic Points 17 Accuracy 4-11 Rebounds 4 Assists 0

Left, right, and middle. DeShaun Thomas was not questioning but doing his job in the low-post. His clutchness that followed by four points decided the tight fight with Zalgiris. After starting the season 0-4, Bayern won their first game in Kaunas 75-73.

"He's a player that plays the same up by 20 or down by 20. He doesn't feel the pressure," Trinchieri praised Thomas, who scored 15 points. "At that moment, we tried to put the ball in the hands of the player that can play one-on-one."

Up by a few or down in double digits, Bayern didn't stop fighting for their first EuroLeague win this year, even if they played against a hungry Zalgiris team that had 9 thousand fans' support.

"I'm very happy that we were able to win. This was an amazing atmosphere. To play here is always unbelievable," Trinchieri said. "We had a very tough start. We could not rebound the entire game."

But to tell the truth, we were two different teams in the first and second half. We played very, very hard. We were better on defense, and we started making shots. So for us, it's very important to win.

We always lost for small things except for the Barcelona game. We lost three games the same way. Then our locker room was full of ghosts. Can we win one game? Can we win one tie game?

It's human (thing). We can fight it, but the best medicine to heal is always a win. And this for us is a big win," the Italian coach added.

The COVID-19 outbreak ruined the whole preseason for last year's Cinderella. But Bayern starts regrouping with players returning. Vladimir Lucic unexpectedly came back in Kaunas, although there were various reports about him not playing against Zalgiris yet.

FC Bayern Munich / Schedule

Zalgiris Kaunas FC Bayern Munich73-75 FC Bayern Munich AX Armani Exchange MilanTue18:45 ALBA Berlin FC Bayern Munich10-2818:00

The face of Bayern had 17 points, four rebounds, and three steals in his return.

"The point is that some things happened altogether that really kill us at the beginning of the season. Because all the returning players, Radosevic, Zipser, Lucic, in similar positions, were out altogether for six weeks," Trinchieri told BasketNews." Radosevic is still out."

"We looked very good in the first three weeks, and this thing hit us on everything. We had to reshape the hierarchy, reshape everything on the court. We're a new team that plays in the Euroleague with a very short rotation.

We have players coming back slowly. If you consider the team like a train, the train has to slow down to let the player catch the train. Returning players are very important. His presence is very important because he helps the coach share the mentality, the team's culture," Trinchieri continued.

In the end, Trinchieri defended new Zalgiris head coach Jure Zdovc, who replaced Martin Schiller the last week. The Slovenian started his work last week but didn't have enough time yet to make his adjustments to win the game.

"I don't have to be a lawyer of any coach here. But expect a change when you play the double week? When you have injuries? How can you expect the change? Just snapping fingers? In basketball, it doesn't work," Trinchieri said. "Every coach needs time. Every coach need needs time to put together something new."

"So Zalgiris could not have changes. And they played a super hard game. They played hard in Olympiacos, which is really difficult to beat. They played hard with Zvezda. And they played hard tonight. This is a fact, not an opinion. But Zalgiris doesn't need me to cheer for them," Trinchieri concluded.

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