Vladislav Emchenko: "Both teams deserved to win"

Zenit guard Vladislav Emchenko commented on the results of Game 7 of the VTB United League semifinal against UNICS (64:55), which took place today in Kazan. The series ended with a victory for the Kazan team (3-4).

— Of course, there are a lot of emotions. Nobody likes to lose, especially in such an important game, one that determines a spot in the finals. There's a lot of psychology in basketball. And of course, being up 3-1 in the series and letting the advantage slip away, UNICS caught up. But today, going into the game, we had to put aside all thoughts of what happened in previous games and start with a clean slate, not thinking about the past, not thinking about the future, but just playing in the moment.

Both teams deserved to win. It wasn't a very high-scoring game. We scored 55 points, which is very low, and the opponent scored 64, which I also think is below their average.

There was a lot of defense. Both teams were tired. You could see the players were running on empty. But today, UNICS deservedly won with a solid margin. Of course, everyone is upset. We wanted to reach the finals, but that's reality. We still have things to fight for.

So now, we need to rest, calm down, and prepare for the next game.

— Did you miss Johnny Juzang in the last few games?

— One hundred percent. Johnny is one of our main offensive players, who had very productive 3-4 games. Of course, injuries are part of sports. Many of our players played through minor injuries, pushing themselves on painkillers.

But I'm sure that not all the guys on UNICS were fresh and healthy either. So if Johnny had been there, the result could have been different. But we have enough players, enough rotation, to step up, come together, and win this game. But again, I repeat, the opponent deserved to win. It is what it is."

— Was there any key moment after which some nervousness set in?

— Probably there wasn't a key moment. Personally, having not yet rewatched the game, I feel like we lacked some kind of energy spark, you know? Because the game was very gritty on both sides. As I said, both UNICS looked tired and we looked tired. There were a lot of silly turnovers from both teams. It felt like at some point we needed to make that extra step and dig in a little more on defense through sheer willpower.

We needed to run out and score in transition, because today we didn't convert our defensive stops into fast breaks, we lost the ball. It was those little details that could have helped us turn the game slightly, seize the initiative, but as I said, it didn't happen. And it's not like UNICS drastically turned the game around either.

No, it was just a gritty game from the first minutes to the last. Especially at the end, UNICS was just more precise and, in some moments, smarter on the court.

— It seemed like there were two different Zenit teams today — in the first half and the second half. What happened during the long break?

— Well, basketball is such a game. There are countless examples of a team leading by 10-15 points and then the other team turns the game around in just a few minutes. That means you can't switch off or relax for a single second.

I wouldn't say we looked good in the first half and bad in the second. I think we made more mistakes today than we should have, and more than a Game 7 for a finals berth would allow. We didn't show the basketball we are capable of playing, the basketball we have in us. But what can I say? It is what it is.

— From your answers, it seems psychology was the key factor in this series. Is that correct?

— Psychology is a part of it. As I said, physically we could have played tighter defense and been more productive on offense. Again, 55 points is very low given our capabilities. Okay, Johnny isn't on the team, but there are many other players who are talented offensively. But scoring only 55 points is very low. What kind of win can we aim for?

I mean, if you say we played good defense, allowing a team like UNICS to score only 64 points, but then only scoring 55 ourselves... We couldn't find gaps in their defense, we lost the ball, we missed shots, and all together, it just didn't work out."

— Today, Zenit attempted ten fewer three-pointers. Was that caution, or did the opponent's defense prevent it?

— Kazan changed their defense throughout the game. Sometimes they played zone, sometimes man-to-man, sometimes they switched. They were packed very tightly together, and often on the court they had Jalen Reynolds, Bingham, Misha Belenitsky, Andrey Lopatin — all over 2 meters tall. They all stand in the zone, making it very hard to even enter the zone or beat your man.

Our offense just stalled at times; there wasn't much movement, and very many shots were taken in the last seconds of the shot clock.

Again, we could have shot threes on every possession, but we still wanted to try to drive, kick, move the ball, but sometimes UNICS simply wouldn't let us do that.