"During the break, we made conclusions and decided to play more aggressively on defense": Popovic and Dulkay about the comeback against Chelbasket
The head coach of the blue-whites second team Oliver Popovic commented on the outcome of the 5th round match of the Fonbet Super League regular season against Chelbasket (93:91).
— It was two different halves. In the first half, we defended very poorly. In some moments in the second half, our defense was still lacking, but we simply increased our contact play on defense. In the third quarter, we allowed only 16 points, and in the fourth 20. We conceded many points in the first two segments, which led to a large gap by halftime. But the guys understood in the end that we needed to play. They stepped up in the second half and managed to win, albeit by a narrow margin. But overall, they did great, and I congratulate them.
— What changed in the second half in terms of defense or maybe even offense?
— In defense, we started playing more aggressively, communicating more, and didn't allow easy points. On offense, we moved the ball faster, and it worked out well for us.
Zenit-2 forward Mikhail Dulkay also shared his thoughts on the hard-fought win over the Urals team.
— It was a great, high-scoring game. We started off very poorly on defense, giving the opponent too many open shots, which they converted, so we allowed 50 points in the first half. During the break, we made some conclusions and decided to play more aggressively on defense. On offense, we did what we know how to do — just faster. Overall, we managed to capitalize on the moments we should have, and that’s how it worked out.
— What changed in the second half? You were down by a significant number of points. What turned around after halftime?
— As I said, we just started playing more aggressively on defense, allowing the opponent fewer open, easy shots, and we ourselves moved faster, fast breaks, and we also converted our open shots and took control in the end.
— Do you think the team has recovered after the big loss to CSKA-2 and the challenging away games against Revda and Izhevsk?
— I think so. We had a lot of discussions about that loss. We had a solid training cycle, and I think we won’t see that kind of loss again. We’ve learned from it.
