Ainars BAGATSKIS: “The first two quarters are the best of the tournament for Ukraine”

Ainars Bagatskis, the coach of the Ukraine national basketball team, appreciated the first defeat in the EuroBasket. The team lost 79:99 to Greece.

“It’s been very easy to prepare the team for this game. Giannis or not, it’s clear to everybody what Greece is doing on the court. They play really aggressive basketball and if you don’t show them the same or even more aggression, you’re going to be in big trouble. Our first two quarters are the best in this championship. “Minimum losses, good defensive decisions, aggressive defense. They even seemed to confuse the opponent a bit.”

“At the beginning of the third quarter we lost our mind to attack. It affected our defense and Greece had a lot of chances for easy open shots and they transformed them. Back in the game we had some very good shots but we couldn’t hit them. That’s it”.

Why did Gerun and Lukashov not play? I can’t tell you all the secrets, but it was a planned decision. They are not injured, everything is fine with them. No need to look for anything special in this, is it part of preparation for Lan and Pustovoy’s initial debut? It was pretty clear to me in which squad the Greeks would start playing. We put Bliznyuk against Antetokounmpo.”

“On paper it’s easy to say how to stop Antetokumbo, but in real life it’s not that simple. So, Len and Pustovoy helped. Sometimes everything was fine, some of the idea worked, some didn’t. The two big ones were one. In the meantime, we have used and will continue to use them. We must understand how to use them more. This is what we need,” said the teacher.