Milutinov: “We played our best game defensively – We have to stay humble”

Declarations after the triumph of Serbia against Lithuania were made by the center of Olympiakos, Nikola Milutinovstressing that Simanic’s message that he’s feeling better propelled him and his teammates to victory and stating that his team produced its best defensive performance in this year’s Mundobasketball.

In detail what the Olympiakos center said:



“Today was the first day that Simanic sent us a message and told us that he is feeling better. That made us happy and gave us the drive to play with so much energy. I really hope we made him proud.

I think today we played our best game of the tournament defensively. Lithuania has very good quality players with scoring ability. They showed it against the USA. We had to do the step-up. We did a very good job.

Defense always comes first for us. This gives us energy to attack. This is our identity and we must hold on to it until the end. Whatever team we face next will be a very good opponent. It won’t be easy. It will be difficult whoever it is. We are not the favourites, so we have to work hard and play as well as we can.

Canada has amazing players, so does Slovenia. We have to stay humble, rest the next two days. It will be the first time we have that much time until the next game, so we have to be ready for the semi-finals.

We will try to go all the way for Simanic, but it will be very difficult. All the opponents are difficult at this stage, but we will do everything we can to make him happy and proud.”