Itoudis: “We are aware – To be competitive with the USA”

THE National basketball team on Thursday afternoon, she did her second training session in Abu Dhabi, the last stop of her preparation before the World Cup in Manila. THE Dimitris Itoudis he stood in the mood shown by the internationals and referred to tomorrow’s (18/8, 19:00) friendly against the USA at the Etihad Arena. Kostas Papanikolaou, who is expected in the Emirates tonight after the birth of his second daughter, will probably not be available.

“First of all, congratulations to Kostas and Angeliki on the birth of their daughter. As far as the team is concerned, we had a good training session today and in general the more we adapt to the conditions the better we get. We are waiting for the leader (S.S. Papanikolaou) to come, obviously he needs his time. I don’t think he’ll be ready for the USA friendly, but I think he’ll be fine for that one against Germany. The team is getting better and better. We left 11-12 days before the first official game and the fact that we are together all day – in the hotel, in training, Thanasis took the team out for dinner the day before yesterday – will give us better chemistry. Of course everything is judged on the pitch, but it all starts off the pitch too, when the players have common components. We are healthy, we have no injuries and that is also important“, emphasized the federal technician.

“We are who we are, concrete and self-aware. The athletes make a very good effort, they give their best every day. We would obviously like to have better percentages in three-pointers, because we create very good conditions, but also in shots. Game by game and practice by practice we will get better“, he added.

As for the strong test against Team USA, he said:The USA is a new team. 9 of the 12 players on the roster are above 38% in NBA three-pointers. Branson and Halliburton run the team in the set play. Their main feature is the transition game, from which they get an average of 38.5 points. They score 1.5 points per possession when the clock is ‘full’, while with 10 seconds or less left on the clock, that number drops to 0.65. They are very athletic and have a lot of options in the open field. We should not give them so many opportunities to run, because they do it not only after mistakes, but even after a basket or shots. In any case we want to present a competitive face».