Aleksander Sekulic: "For this kind of games you have to do a better job on defense"

Zenit head coach Aleksander Sekulic commented on the home win over Pari Nizhny Novgorod (102:80) and answered journalists’ questions during the post-game press conference.

— First of all, thank you, big thanks for the fans who again came to support us. It's a game where it's a must win and we came here to do our job, we did our job, we scored more than 100 points but for sure for this kind of games you have to do a better job on defense. Even though also Nizhny had some great moments in the game but most of all we have to do a better job. 

— How would you assess Georgy Zhbanov’s performance after such a long break? And what is the health status of Sergey Karasev and Andre Roberson?

— Regarding Georgy Zhbanov, it's his first game, he did not a lot of practices with us, so we had to be careful bringing him in on the court. But his reaction was from my point of view great. He bring energy. He bring toughness on defense. This is something we were missing while he was injured. Regarding Roberson and Karasev, our medical stuff is doing really overtime job to bring them back. I'm not sure when they will come back, but it looks like it's going to be very soon.

— Luka Samanic looks very strong compared to the rest of the VTB United League and can play both the four and five positions. Was there a chance to bring him in before the season so he could go through training camp and integrate with the team faster?

— First of all, I don't think he played a great game today. I mean, he's trying hard, he played a solid game, I know his abilities, but he can play much better. But he had, I think, about a month of without playing basketball, he was practicing but not playing, so his game shape is not on the level we want him to be, and this is something that everybody, including him and us as a coaching staff, we need to work on. In the preseason he was not even on the market, so when he was available and we had very unfortunate injury with Alex Poythress who was one of the most important players for us, we took this chance. He was available, he finished his contract with Baskonia, so it was meant for us to get him. And like you said, you saw probably him before, he can help us on two positions, which is going to be very important for the continuation of the season.