Dejan Radonjić: "In the last few minutes, we made the good decisions on both ends"

The press conference of Zenit head coach Dejan Radonjić after the away victory over BETCITY PARMA (78:84) in the VTB United League.

— First of all, congrats to my players for this win. It was tough, really tough game. I think so also it was good game. We didn't play well first 20 minutes defensive, 48 points is too much. So many mistakes, our focus was not good, they played really well. We changed our approach and we put more energy in the second half. We had a problem before the game with the injury so and also we had the problem during the game with the one player because two technical fouls, so it was difficult to play and to win this game. For us it was most important to be enough focus what we did especially last several minutes — defensively we did a good job, offensively also. It was several minutes with good decisions on both ends, which was very important to win in this game tonight.

— What did you say to the team when you lost 12 points and it seemed that there was some kind of panic in the players’ actions?

— Of course, it was all during the first half. It's not only when they had a plus 12. Our focus was not good. We did so many mistakes, especially defensively. So it was very important to stay focused and to change our approach to what we did in the second half.

— What exactly did you say after the first break?

— I told them that we need to improve our defense, first of all. Then to be much more smart offensively. 

— Did the crowd pressure have any impact?

— It was a great night and I also enjoyed this atmosphere over here. Of course, in the end, we won this game, I'm in a good mood anyway, but I can say that it's a really great atmosphere. They supported them really well, so it was not easy to play.