Olimpia completes the tenth double round of the season in Athens against Panathinaikos, and the morale us very high because of a playoff berth clinched with two rounds to spare, the first since 2014. The spot was conquered along four other teams, Barcelona, CSKA Moscow, Anadolu Efes, who Olimpia will face in the final round at the Mediolanum Forum, and Fenerbahce. The OAKA game will be played on Thursday 1 April (20:00, tip-off time in Italy) and the goal is to improve the position in the standings and the number of wins. On the OAKA court Olimpia has won in its last two appearances. It will also be the last road game of the European regular season. The current record is 10-6. Panathinaikos is eliminated from the playoff race, but Nemanja Nedovic should be back on the court and, like the previous opponent, Red Star, that team has been able to win in Milan at the beginning of the season. On top of it, Mario Hezonja has been added to the roster.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We enjoyed the night after clinching the playoff qualification, but unfortunately there’s no more time to celebrate, because another difficult game is upon us and it is important to improve our playoffs’ seeding. Against Panathinaikos, rebounding and how to face its switching defense will be crucial, along an energy that we hope will be of the level required to win a game like this.”
RICCARDO MORASCHINI – “We are happy to have reached the playoffs early, but we still have a lot of work to do starting with this game in Athens against a team that has already beaten us, a very physical team and with the qualities to get us in trouble. We will have to play with attention and intensity for 40 minutes.”
REFEREES – Sreten Radovic (Croatia), Fernando Rocha (Portugal), Saulius Racys (Sweden).
A RECORD SEASON – Olimpia has set a new club record for most wins during one EuroLeague season. The previous one dated back to the 2013/14 season, with another format, when Olimpia won 5 games during the regular season, 10 during the Top 16 phase and one in the playoffs, reaching the total number of 16. Now the number of games won has reached 20.
THE STREAK-BUSTERS – This is a season to be remembered for many reasons. The win in Madrid was the second in the club history, but the first (on November 11, 2003) took place in the Uleb Cup (now Eurocup). The record in the top European competition in Madrid was 0-16 and included the 1967 European Cup championship game, before the big win in January. During this season, Olimpia won in Tel Aviv for the first time in 33 years, defeated Real Madrid in Milan, breaking a streak of 14 straight losses. In Istanbul against Efes, Olimpia broke a streak of 15 consecutive road losses to the Turkish team. Besides, Olimpia defeated CSKA for the first time after 10 straight defeats and in Moscow after 11 years. Finally, the win over the Red Star was the first after six straight losses with the Serbian team.
THE DOUBLE ROUND – Olimpia has played nine double rounds (weeks with two consecutive EuroLeague games) so far. The current one is the tenth. The total record is 13-6, 6-4 in “game 1” and 7-2 in “game 2”. It is 6-3 at home and 7-3 on the road. All this before closing the last “double round” in Athens.
NOTES – Gigi Datome is second behind only Kyle Kuric (Barcelona) in three-point shooting at 55.1 percent. Zach LeDay is in fifth place at 50.0 percent. Olimpia as a team is first overall shooting 41.99 percent from three-point range. Shavon Shields has an active streak of 10 consecutive double-digit games. Kevin Punter has hit 27 consecutive free throws, so far. Vlado Micov is two rebounds away from 700 in his career. Jeff Brooks has passed the 300 rebounds for Olimpia and the 500 rebounds total for his career. Kaleb Tarczewski is two points from 700 in his career, all in Olimpia. Kevin Punter in Belgrade tied his personal best set in Moscow by making five threes in a single game.
LEDAY FROM THREE! – The four bombs scored by Zach LeDay in Belgrade are his personal best. In his career he had never exceeded three threes in the same game. LeDay with 25 threes this season has virtually doubled the number of threes made last season in Kaunas (13).
PANATHINAIKOS – Since Panathinaikos won in Milan, two relevant differences have to be considered: on the bench the new coach is the former Israeli playmaker (also of Panathinaikos) Odded Katash, on the court the Croatian Mario Hezonja, fresh from five seasons in the NBA (he’s averaging 15.2 points per game), has been added. The team’s leading scorer, Nemanja Nedovic (16.7 points per game and 3.8 assists) is expected to return from an injury. Key players are the guard Howard Sant-Roos (7.3 points, 3.9 assists per game), small forward Ioannis Papapetrou (12.3 points per game and 4.3 rebounds), the center Kostantinos Mitoglou (9.2 points per game, 5.4 rebounds, 57.7 percent from two-point range) and the 2.20 mt-tall tower Georgios Papagiannis (9.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 68.5 percent from the field). Shelvin Mack as a point-guard and the rim runner Aaron White (7.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 38.1% from three) are also a big part of the rotation.
HISTORY LESSON– Olimpia has faced Panathinaikos 21 times in its history. The record is 7-14 (6-13 in the current EuroLeague). In Athens, Olimpia has won during the 2011/12 Top 16, 67-58, and during the last two seasons, in 2018/19 86-83 and in 2019/20, 79-78, with Vlado Micov scoring 18 points while Michael Roll added 15.
PANATHINAIKOS CONNECTION – Nemanja Nedovic spent two years in Milan winning a Super Cup. Shelvin Mack and Aaron White were with Olimpia in the early part of last season before moving, the first to Jerusalem and the second to Tenerife. Now they found themselves with Nedovic at Panathinaikos.
