After back-to-back defeats, the Little Red Shoes got back to winning ways in Round 8
Milan gives Paris a taste of its own medicine, holds off late Hifi push
Izveštaji utakmica
3 Min čitanja
Regular Season
Round 8 of 38
Regular Season
EA7 Emporio Armani MilanEA7
8677
Paris BasketballPBB
Overview
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Playing uptempo, making the most of fast-break situations, and swarming the opposition on defense, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan looked like it was Paris Basketball in disguise in the first half on Thursday night.
Leading by 20 points at the break and having held Paris to just 27 points, the fewest it had ever scored in the first half of a EuroLeague game, Milan was flying. Even more so given that its 57 first-half points were the third most it had ever scored after 20 minutes, too.
“Holding a team like Paris to 27 points, it’s impressive for us,” Milan guard Nico Mannion told EuroLeague TV at halftime. “It’s a 20-point game now, but we have to do the same thing in the second half because with how fast they play, how many possessions and how many threes they shoot, they could make a run. We’ve just got to stay disciplined, keep talking and playing hard.”
Of the 27 points that Paris had mustered to that point, just 2 belonged to star player Nadir Hifi. After a frustrating night in Round 7, which saw the 23-year-old make 2-of-16 field goals in a loss to Anadolu Efes Istanbul, his luck didn’t show any sign of changing through the first 20 minutes at the Forum as he went 1 for 10 from the field. A reaction was expected after the interval – and so it proved.
Hifi, who seemed insistent on trying to find his rhythm by attempting three-pointers in the latter stages of the first half, started going to the rim and was finding some joy. But with such a big deficit to overturn, it was in the final stages of the third quarter where the Frenchman really started to show off his repertoire.
Having ended the period with a layup and then a perfectly swished three-pointer, Hifi had rediscovered his touch and had cut the difference to just 14 points (67-53) entering the final frame. He was determined to lead Paris’s improbable comeback and cut the gap to single digits early in the fourth with another smooth-as-silk three followed by a three-point play (67-59), but Shavon Shields, Devin Booker and Marko Guduric joined forces to calm things down again (78-61).
“I think the team played an excellent first half,” coach Ettore Messina said in the post-game press conference. “In the second half, we had a moment where we were tired between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, and that was the only moment I think where were not disciplined in doing what we needed to do to beat them.
“The defense was very good for 40 minutes. In the crucial moment, when they came closer, we had the discipline to put the ball in the hands of the players who needed to have the ball, and they delivered with some big plays.”
Paris and Hifi refused to go away in the remaining 5 minutes, yet Milan leaned on its experience to maintain a double-digit gap right until the final seconds, when Justin Robinson split free throws to fix the final score at 86-77.
For Milan, this performance – particularly in the first half, when it gave Paris a taste of its own medicine – was the perfect remedy after dropping its last two and going 1-5 over its last six coming into Round 8. The key will be to build on this victory when it travels to face Efes next Friday.
“We’ve played a one-possession game almost every single game [this season], so I’m happy one went our way this time,” Shields joked in his post-game interview.
“We needed that one,” Booker added. “Our spirits were a little down from the previous losses, so we knew we needed to come out aggressive – and we did that from the beginning. We knew how important this win was, so we had to give it everything we had – and we did that.”
Paris, meanwhile, will be keen to forget this double-round week in a hurry. Next Thursday the side from the French capital welcomes FC Bayern Munich in the first of a three-game homestand, so coach Francesco Tabellini and his players will fancy their chances of getting back in the winning column once again.
