Tomislav Mijatovic: “We Lost Our Balance for the Wrong Reasons”

After the game against Monaco on EuroLeague’s eighth matchday, Anadolu Efes head coach Tomislav Mijatovic shared his thoughts:

“It’s a tough loss. For three quarters, I’d say we played by the book. But then in the last quarter, we let it slip away. We lost our balance for the wrong reasons, which is out of character for us. We didn’t get the energy we wanted from the bench. When we entered the last quarter with a 10-point lead, we wanted to rotate and bring in fresh players, but we didn’t get the performance we needed. This led to us losing a game we had in our hands. For three quarters, we played to our plan, controlled the rebounds, made more assists, defended well, and stayed disciplined. But this is basketball. You have to do this for 40 minutes. Today, we only managed to do it for 32 minutes. We need to keep improving, getting better, and working. This is our philosophy. We won’t stop until we fix it. We have the materials to do it.

Elijah is one of our leaders and has produced a lot for us. Today, he picked up some fouls, which threw him off his rhythm. Then he got a technical for throwing himself out of the game. We also made some easy turnovers in the first half that weren’t due to pressure—they were just simple mistakes. I wouldn’t say that was the main issue today, though. Turnovers just added to our mistakes. We had 22 assists and 37 rebounds, which are very good numbers. It’s disappointing that we couldn’t finish off with all that effort. Yes, we had a lot of turnovers, but still, much of the game was in our control, and we let it slip away. That’s what disappoints me. We need to correct this through talking and working on it. Our roster is very talented. We can play and beat anyone. But we can’t allow lapses like we had in the first 4-5 minutes of the final quarter. We need to stop that. My players are very strong-willed. They know what it means to wear the Anadolu Efes jersey. I know they’re upset about the loss and will do everything they can to win again.

At the start of the last quarter, we had a 10-point lead and wanted to bring in fresh players with fresh energy. This way, we could stay strong until the end. After all, players can’t play for 40 minutes. That was our thinking at the time. Unfortunately, it didn’t go as planned. We weren’t as fluid or organized as we wanted to be. I could’ve called a timeout sooner, of course. But those players had just entered, and I wanted to save a timeout for the end. However, I didn’t get the impact I wanted due to the mistakes we made.

Shane Larkin, unfortunately, is injured. We can’t avoid that. But everyone else is trying to step up and give their best. Sadly, Elijah’s rhythm was interrupted by fouls today, so he couldn’t fulfill his role as a secondary playmaker. We tried a few other solutions with Holatz and Dogus. But these aren’t excuses. We didn’t execute what we wanted in the last quarter. Up to that point, we were doing well. We need to fix and improve this. Darius has improved his game this year, but with Shane out, we need him to step up even more. Unfortunately, that’s the situation. Losing is painful; I hate it. But you have to pick yourself up and correct it.

In the first three quarters, we used a rotation that had Willis playing as the three, which made a difference. That’s why we had to choose between Stanley and Derek, and we picked Derek because he was in better shape. Stanley is doing a great job, trying to learn as much as he can. It’s a tough position to play. He’s an excellent player and teammate. We’re using him and will continue to do so. He knows this, and he has no doubt or fear about it.”