Sitting in a press conference room in the Canary Islands on Wednesday, ratiopharm Ulm head coach Jaka Lakovic was at pains to convince the local media that his team's defense was the key to ending Gran Canaria's four-game winning streak in Group B of the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season.
Defense decided it, he repeated, despite Ulm scoring 96 points on the road and posting better overall shooting percentages than in any of its 113 previous EuroCup games since 2012.
"We had a good game on offense, very accurate," Lakovic allowed. "Normally, we are pretty good in two-pointers, but on threes we're not used to these percentages. I think it's because of good ball movement leading to shots that were basically open. When we get them, we should hit with good percentages, and that's what happened, so I'm happy. But despite that, I still think defense was the key tonight."
Lakovic was only being honest. Ulm had held the hosts to less than 20 points in each of the first three quarters. In the game's first 17 minutes, just three Gran Canaria players scored field goals. Ulm didn't allow any Gran Canaria field goals at all, in fact, over the last 6:16 of the third quarter. And after the hosts rallied to within 80-86 with under 1:43 left to play, Sindarius Thornwell and Philipp Herkenhoff made steals within the next minute that allowed Ulm to finish the game on a 1-10 run to win 81-96.
Still, there was no ignoring Ulm's stellar shooting: 25-for-35 inside the arc, 10-for-19 on threes, and 16-for-18 at the foul line. Its two-point accuracy (71.4%) was Ulm's second-best ever on the road and its three-point accuracy (52.6%) tied for third. With its 88.9% free throws, that added up to a club-record 66.2% true shooting, which measures how many points a team finishes with vs. the total if all its shot attempts had scored.
The bottom line is that Ulm needed both super shooting and lock-down defense to withstand committing 17 turnovers and allowing 17 offensive rebounds to Gran Canaria. But the visitors did just that, halting red-hot Gran Canaria in its tracks. As such, Ulm has now won three of four games since starting 0-2 and Lakovic believes that the team is just now learning how to put all its capabilities on the court at the same time.
"We have an untested team; that's first," he explained. "Many of the players leading our team are playing for the first time in Europe or in the EuroCup. Only Semaj Christon has that experience. And behind those players, we have a mix of young players who are still working very hard to arrive at the level that the EuroCup demands. For that reason, we've had a lot of inconsistency. For the simple fact of playing a complete game today, I am very happy for them and for the team."