Ettore Messina comented on last weekend’s loss of Real Madrid in the ACB against Gran Canaria, stating that his team is like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde performance-wise.
Real Madrid was up by 5 to enter the final quarter (41-46), and up by 8 with 8 minutes to go, yet they still managed to lose by 11 (70-59), after being outscored 29-13 in the final period.
“We were like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,because we played three quarters and a bit more good, in the sense the we compensated for our bad offense with good defense and rebound control. Up until the moment we led by 8 in the last quarter. And then, when the game entered it’s final stage (with defenses becoming tighter and quick ball movement on offense), we didn’t do any of those two things. We stopped defending as if we could win the game solely on offense. That is a mistake, a very bad one, especially if you play an away game. And in offense we stopped moving the ball. Those two things killed us.
Today, the challenge of this game was to play without precipitation and with the same calm as in a game that we would enter as favorites, something that in some cases is very difficult to achieve in a game that you could lose, like against Olympiacos. Because you play against a great team.
In the key moments of the game we precipitated. We threw away everything that we had built in the first 32 minutes. This is a very bad mistake and we keep learning. There is nothing we can do, except work, work and work.”
