Lions can learn a lot from both strong first half and rocky second half
First victory brings good feeling, but second half shows London still has work to do
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3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 3 of 18
Regular Season
group b
London LionsLDN
8771
Dolomiti Energia TrentoTRE
group b
Overview
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The London Lions players and coaches didn’t describe their first BKT EuroCup victory of the season as a tale of two halves – but they likely know it was. A lackluster second-half showing left plenty of homework after an impressive opening 20 minutes.
London stormed out to a 39-point lead just three minutes into the second half, looking like world beaters in their Group B matchup. Dolomiti Energia Trento, to its credit, fought back and made the final score more respectable at 87-71.
“It always feels good to get into the win column. We’ve been struggling in the EuroCup – two bad losses: one at home and one on the road. But we wanted to come out, show our fans what we really have, and get a win,” said Tarik Phillip, who recorded 15 points and 7 assists as London improved to 1–2.
Phillip, 32, wasn’t surprised Trento fought back. “No team is going to be an easy out, as you can see. They wouldn’t lay down,” he said.
Desperate for a spark, Trento threw on a full-court press, forcing some turnovers and giving London’s new head coach Tautvydas Sabonis something to think about. The Italians cut the lead to nine with just over two minutes left, but London finally executed offensively to close the game.
“The first half, we were great. We defended, and we played the basketball that I and the coaching staff envisioned. The offense just builds off that,” said Sabonis. “In the second half, we knew they were going to come out harder, stronger, and more physical. We tried to explain that to the players – good teams are going to do that, and we have to be ready. I’m just happy we found a way to win. There’s a lot to learn from the second half.”
After two straight losses to open the EuroCup, Sabonis said the first-half performance was especially important, not just for the win but for showing the team can actually score. London shot 14-of-16 on two-pointers (87.5%) and 8-of-13 from deep (61.5%) for 55 first-half points.
Coming into the game, London had the worst offense in the EuroCup, ranked 20th in points (66.0 ppg), PIR (59.5), and two-point percentage (46.3%), as well as 19th in assists (14.0 apg) and 15th in three-point percentage (29.5%).
“The guys can believe now – believe in what we do and what the coaching staff envisions. Now they can feel it,” said Sabonis.
Veteran forward Deane Williams said he and his teammates took the biggest lesson from their own performance.
“The statement was most importantly for ourselves, just to prove to ourselves that we’re capable of playing great basketball,” said Williams, who contributed 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists off the bench. “We had a conversation at halftime: we have no excuses now. This is the level we’re going to play at every single game.”
No game is going to be easy – not even closing one out with a 39-point lead.
