"It was a good trip": Neno Dimitrijevic and Alex Poythress on the victory over Uralmash

Zenit center Alex Poythress summed up the friendly game against Uralmash (92:80).

— Well, Alex, congrats with the win. You collected 22 points, just like your in-game number. Are you satisfied with your performance?

— Actually, no. I think as a team, we know we can play better. We had a little slip-up in the third quarter. We let the team come back. Even though I know it's preseason, we still got to do better jobs of controlling the game and when we have leads, make the game even bigger. We let them come back, we let it turn into a game. In the the fourth quarter, we settled down, controlled the game, got back up 10 points, but we just got to do a better job of that, putting teams away.

— Are you happy with this trip? You played against Maccabi, such an experience, and also going back home with a win.

— The trip was good. I mean, anytime we can play some of these good teams, it's always good. It's a good telling point for where we are as a team. It lets us know what we need to work on, what we need to improve on. So, but I think overall we're going in the right direction, the steps, and we'll keep improving and hopefully we'll be ready for the Supercup next week.

Zenit guard Neno Dimitrijevic also shared his impressions after the away games in Belgrade.

— Congrats with the win. How are you happy with your own performance today?

— I mean, we are still in the preseason stage, so we are getting to know each other, everybody tries to find their rhythm and everything. It's a process, but I hope we can keep improving and arrive in the beginning of the season ready to compete.

— Was that a good experience to play Uralmah and especially Maccabi here?

— We were also hoping to play against Partizan, to be honest, I was looking forward to that. Because here the atmosphere is crazy, so we were hoping for that, but maybe next time. But yeah, these two games help us hopefully to improve and move forward.

— Do you think Zenit will ever play with you at Tasmajdan?

— I hope so, yeah.