Coach Messina, Milan: 'My players played with great desire'

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan head coach Ettore Messina:
"I am very very happy, We are coming off a loss in the Italian League that we didn’t want to have, but unfortunately we dropped the game. And my team today, my players played with great desire, with great will. It’s very difficult to win here against a very talented team, very physical. I think we had the lead almost 40 minutes, which is very difficult. So congratulations to my players for a fantastic game.
"Tim [Luwawu-Cabarrot] had a good game, but he's had already some big games for us. It's not easy for anybody to arrive in the middle of the season and get into the team and understand how you can help and what you should do. So today he had a very good game on both ends of the floor, offense and defense, and I just hope he continues like this."
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul head coach Dimitris Itoudis:
"Congratulations to Milano. It was a must-win game for us. Unfortunately, we didn’t show up with the same mindset and mentality that we wanted to. At the beginning of the game, we gave too many easy situations to Milano. We managed though to defend in the second quarter. We tied the game, unfortunately, as is evident because after that we protested a mistake of the referees that counted the basket, which was already counted and they took it back. But this goes to the procedure. I don’t want to analyze this. I’m just saying the facts, we almost tied the game.
"We couldn’t stop Napier. He had 0 assists, but you could see whenever he was doubled, he was passing the ball and they found secondary creators, whether it was Kyle [Hines] or Tonut or other players. We fought until the end but we shot the ball poorly on twos and threes."
Game Videos
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan guard Shabazz Napier:
"It was a team effort. We were communicating great on defense. I think we were just trying to limit as much as we can from their guards and just trying to help rebound where we needed it. It was a team effort… In the first half, I didn’t want to be too aggressive. I was telling the coach and the team that I just wanted to see the defense they were playing. In the second half, I decided I was going to be a little more aggressive and I was just fortunate enough to make some shots and my teammates were able to find me in good spots, but it was definitely a team effort today."
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan forward Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot:
"They came back. We were expecting that. They are a great team, they have great players and we were expecting them to fight until the end, like everybody should. We stayed focused, we kept our composure and came away with a win. We want all the wins we can get."