Dusan ALIMPIJEVIC
Avtodor head coach:
“We were coming off a tough loss against VEF and we needed this game to reward ourselves after two weeks of very good practices. I’m glad because my guys really deserved this win. We had and tried to follow the same idea from the beginning to the end but there were a few things we needed to change in the half-time interval because we didn’t fulfill them in a right way in the first two quarters.

Did Nikita Mikhailovskii deserve his appearance in the starting five or that was just a praise for him? You probably know I really like to work with the young players and always try to push them to the higher level. Of course, they must deserve their minutes and Nikita actually deserved his appearance as a starter. He is really talented player but he also must continue to improve himself every single time. This also refers to every young player. I’m also certain this is not so important who is entering the court in the starting five. The starters are not always the best players in the roster. The coach should decide who wil be the most efficient and the most useful for the team at certain moments.

I also would like to wish all the best for the coach Lukic. Tonight it was also very special game for me because Zoran was my last coach in Belgrade when I was a player. I want to wish him strong health and good season because such good organization like Nizhny Novgorod really deserves it.”