After their road win against Olimpia Milano, we talked to Janis Strelnieks of Olympiacos Piraeus both on the game and him not being able to play for Latvia in FIBA World Cup 2019 Qualifiers.
After a game that was full-excitement until the last second, Janis Strelnieks pointed out that they were not good at the defensive rebounds which allowed Milano to score more.
“It was a very tough game and Milano showed that they can play good basketball. They are very strong on one-to-one. We couldn’t stop them let’s say. But the most important thing was that we won the game. We have to think about how to defense more, we forgot defensive rebounds, because I think they’ve got 15 offensive rebounds in total. This is too much. They get second chances and the score every time. So we have to play better defense. Of course, -we expected that it would be a tough game-. Their crowd pushes them so it’s very tough. I heard that last year they have lost here so it’s not easy to play. Armani is a very good team. Maybe they don’t show it so far, they have only two wins but this is just the beginning. They can easily show that they can comeback even when they are down by 20. So nothing is over for them. They will fight.”
Regarding to National Team games that are being played this week. We ask his feelings for not being in Turkey with the team.
“It’s tough. It’s tough for Latvians to play for EuroLeague teams, because we always love playing for our national team. Now we have to support in front of TV.”
If Latvia qualifies, are you willing to go to FIBA World Cup 2019 Finals? Because you are not there right now.
“We will see. It’s a tough question right now. We will see.”
Janis Strelnieks of @olympiacosbc talks on both Olimpia Milano game and not being able to join his National Team -Latvija🇱🇻- this week for FIBA WC 2019 qualifiers. #TBExclusive pic.twitter.com/xpraBu7ssR
— TrendBasketEN (@TrendBasketEN) November 23, 2017