A broken nose did not prevent the Lokomotiv-Kuban forward from grabbing a key rebound off the opponent's backboard at the end of the match against BETCITY PARMA (79:76) to repeat his personal best for scoring in the playoffs (19 points).
- What can you say about the game?
- It was a tough game: we struggled offensively and often lost focus on defense. But this is the playoffs—there are ups and downs. We continued to believe in each other, in our game plan, and brought the match to a win.
- What did the coach say after the game?
- He congratulated us and said that even with such a bad performance on our part—we made a lot of mistakes, lost focus—we still showed character. We have it, no one can take that away. Now we're heading to Perm to finish the series.
- You scored 11 points really quickly, and then stopped for a long time. Why?
- We play a team sport, and at my position, the opportunity to attack the basket doesn't come up very often. Yes, when we move the ball well and play well together, I try to take advantage of good positions. Today, at some point, the emphasis in our game shifted, our roles switched: I started setting more screens and fighting for rebounds—that's okay, I don't dwell on it.
- What was happening in that attack when you scored the winning basket?
- As planned, we got the ball to our leader, Patrick [Miller], and he created a good shot for himself—he made a lot of those in the previous game. All we had to do was go for the rebound to clean up if he missed, which is what happened.
- Have you heard the fans well?
- Yes, they was perfectly audible. And it's great that the fans get loud not only after some showtime dunks, but also during moments like close calls and contested balls. This really helps us–we feel that energy and want to reciprocate. Kudos from the entire team to our fans.
- The opponent committed 21 turnovers. How significant was Lokomotiv's role in these turnovers?
- Close to 100%. We purposefully play aggressive defense and try to provoke our opponents into turnovers. Yes, sometimes this leads to fouls or us being outplayed, but aggressive play always carries a risk.
- BETCITY PARMA has a lot of really big players. How tough is it to play against them?
- I'm certainly not going to complain about this. I like the opportunity to play against opponents bigger and stronger than me—it helps me improve.
- It felt like you got punched in the face in one of tough encounters in the middle of the 4th quarter.
- Yes, my nose was broken. Well, basketball is a contact sport, and things like that happen sometimes. It was unpleasant, but there was nothing I could do. Especially since our doctors have already set my nose back to place.
- So, now you will play in a protective mask?
- As the doctors say.
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