Right after winning the Italian Cup, Olimpia is resuming its international activity for three more games in seven days, the first one at home against Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday. Later, it will play in St. Petersburg (it’s a make-up game) and again in Milan against Khimki. The fight to reach the playoffs is now in full swing, the race is close to the point that at least six or seven teams should theoretically be considered at the same time in the running for the first places and still at risk of elimination. Olimpia won six consecutive games before losing to Villeurbanne. With those six wins it built his current third-place position. This week’s opponent, Maccabi, has 12 games to play yet, but with 10 wins it definitely needs a winning streak to get back on track. That makes the game complicated. Maccabi, besides, has practically the full roster available – Omri Casspi, who has played eight out of 22 games so far, should be the only one missing – having recovered Sandy Cohen and compared to the Tel Aviv game also Yovel Zoosman. Unfortunately, Olimpia will have a depleted roster at the power forward position, where the absence of Jeff Brooks has been joined by that of Zach LeDay, who until now had always been available.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “The team that we are going to face is much better than what its record indicates. They lost several games because of unfortunate circumstances. They are very well organized by Coach Sfairopoulos, they have depth and a lot of physicality. Obviously, it’s a very important game for us, a game we can approach with a lot of confidence, but that won’t be enough, we’ll need to play with great attention to detail from the start. We are happy to get Vlado Micov back, but unfortunately we won’t have Jeff Brooks and Zach LeDay. Hopefully, we’ll be able to have them back during the next few weeks.”
MALCOLM DELANEY – “We are playing against a really good team that has lost some close games, and now is looking to make a push in the second half of the season to get into the playoffs. They are very dangerous and we just have to continue to improve our game in order to try to win.”
THE REFEREES – Olegs Latisevs (Latvia), Emilio Perez (Spain), Josip Radojkovic (Croatia)
MACCABI – Maccabi has a 10-12 but with a points differential of +20 which is a testament to how dangerous it is as a team. Valencia with two more wins and Fenerbahce with four have a worse point differential. But Maccabi was involved in 13 games decided by five or less points and lost eight of them. During the break, it clinched an Israeli Cup final berth and then defeated Hapoel Holon in the league while former Brescia power forward TJ Cline made his debut. Point guard Scottie Wilbekin (16.3 ppg, sixth overall in the EuroLeague) is the go-to guy on a team that has plenty of guards to rotate including John DiBartolomeo, Chris Jones (6.7 ppg, 39.6 percent from three), Elijah Bryant (10.8 points per game) and Tony Dorsey (10.7 points per game, 38.5 percent from three). The small forwards are Yovel Zoosman and Angelo Caloiaro (6.9 points per game, 61.7 percent from two). The latter also plays some at the 4 spot and, behind Wilbekin, is the most used player on the team. The other power forward is Dragan Bender, the 2016 NBA draft 4th pick. The centers are the veteran Othello Hunter (8.7 points, 5.3 rebounds per game) and the Croatian Ante Zizic (8.0 points, 4.4 rebounds), who returned to Europe from an NBA interlude in Cleveland.
SOME BACKGROUND INFOS – Olimpia haa won two of its three European Cups by beating Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final. In Lausanne on April 2, 1987, Olimpia won 71-69 and one year later, in Ghent, prevailed 90-84. In all, the two teams have faced each other 36 times and Maccabi is leading the all-time series 19-17. In Milan, Olimpia is leading the series 11-5. In Tel Aviv, it’s 14-4 for Maccabi. On a neutral court it is 2-0 for Olimpia. In the EuroLeague era, Maccabi is leading 12-7, but it’s 6-3 for Olimpia in Milan. In 2014, Olimpia’s last playoff appearance, Maccabi won the quarterfinal series 3-1 on its way to the championship. Last year, Olimpia beat Maccabi 92-88, with 20 points from Luis Scola and 18 plus 11 assists from Sergio Rodriguez in the Milan game. This season Olimpia broke a streak that had lasted since 1987 by winning 86-85 in Tel Aviv after an overtime forced by Kevin Punter’s 4-point play (he had 18 for the game), and Malcolm Delaney’s 16 points including the winning jumper with three seconds left.
THE MACCABI CONNECTION – Othello Hunter played in Olympiacos Piraeus for the current Milan’s general manager, Christos Stavropoulos (the coach was Ioannis Sfairopoulos, who is now at Maccabi). In CSKA Moscow, he was Sergio Rodriguez and Kyle Hines teammate and they won the 2019 EuroLeague championship. Michael Roll played in Maccabi for two years, and appeared in 58 EuroLeague 68 Israeli league games.
