Zalgiris has won four of the last five EuroLeague games and moved up in the rankings. Especially at home, it’s a very tough team and the Zalgirio Arena will be full, as always. Olimpia left in the early afternoon for Kaunas on a private flight, after completing the last practice session in Milan. Obviously, it is a direct clash in the magmatic fight to access the playoffs.

OLIMPIA – Nemanja Nedovic has practiced regularly in the last few days and after a one-game stop he is available again. Riccardo Moraschini also returns after seven games of absence. Christian Burns has gradually resumed activities, but he is not available yet. Arturas Gudaitis – with gastroenteritis symptoms – didn’t make the trip to Kaunas.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are looking forward to play a very difficult game against a team that traditionally is improving a lot during the second half of the season. Defense, intensity, the right amount of physicality and rebounding will the keys of our game.”

THE FIRST MEETING – Olimpia won 85-81, building its success in the first quarter, closed ahead 23-7. Lukas Lekavicius led Zalgiris’ comeback that included a 10-0 run, but Milan has always been ahead in the score. Kaunas went back to be down by only two points late in the game, but Rodriguez and Micov made the free throws to close the game. Sergio Rodriguez scored 17 points, Luis Scola 14, Vlado Micov 13.

THE OPPONENT – Zalgiris won the last game in Vitoria holding the opponent at 60 points, 25 in the second half, and by dominating the rebounds battle. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ team does not have great scorers, but it shares responsibilities across the roster. Recently the former Panathinaikos playmaker, Lukas Lekavicius, was the most effective player. He is scoring 11.0 points per game, 14.0 in the second leg and he has a seasonal high of 23 points. Next to him is Thomas Walkup (19 points in the Milan game), who remains slightly below the double digit on averaging, but is shooting 50.0% from three-point range and dishes 5.2 assists per game. Normally, he starts at the point flanked by the shooting specialist Arturas Milaknis, who started the last seven games, who is shooting almost 40% from three. KC Rivers, a veteran added at mid-season, comes off the bench and has numbers similar to those of Milaknis. At small forward, the starter is Edgaras Ulanovas who has scored in double digits in five of the last six and in the last three he was 7/12 from the arc. Nigel Hayes plays the two forward positions, the big men are Zach LeDay, formerly at Olympiacos, 11.0 points per game plus 4.8 rebounds although he rarely starts, the Australian Jock Landale (10.4 points, 4.5 rebounds), the Lithuanian Martin Geben and obviously the great Paulius Jankunas, 36 years old in April, who has 3,303 points and 1,801 career rebounds.

HISTORY VS. ZALGIRIS – The two teams met 16 times and Zalgiris leads the all-time series 9-7, 7-4 in the EuroLeague era. In the 1985/86 season, Arvydas Sabonis’ Zalgiris won 80-79 against Olimpia in Kaunas, but Milan destroyed the opponent at home, prevailing 95-66. The following season, when Olimpia would win the first of the two consecutive Champions Cups, it prevailed over Zalgiris twice, 75-71 at home, 100-85 in Kaunas. Zalgiris prevailed in the 1998 Saporta Cup final (82-67). In the 2016/17 season the last Olimpia’s win in Kaunas occurred, 88-84 with 17 points by Andrea Cinciarini and 13 by Awudu Abass. Last year the teams respected the home court: Olimpia won 80-70 in Milan with 20 points from Mike James and 16 with six rebounds from Vlado Micov. Olimpia won 85-81 this year with 17 points and six assists from Sergio Rodriguez, 14 points from Jeff Brooks and 11 from Luis Scola.

THE REFEREES – Daniel Hierrezuelo (Spain), Robert Vyklicky (Czech Republic), Eduard Udyanskyy (Great Britain)

MICOV ​​OVER 1000 POINTS – Vlado Micov has become the club’s first ever scorer in the EuroLeague and has exceeded 1,000 points scored while playing for Olimpia. Arturas Gudaitis rose to the fourth place.

MICOV ​​BY NUMBERS – Vlado Micov has exceeded 2,000 points scored in his career during the game against Efes in Milan. He was the 33rd player to cross that line. In Athens, he played his career EuroLeague game number 200. Micov this season has had a series of 20 consecutive free throws made and had a streak of 10 games with at least one made threes.

RODRIGUEZ IS IN THE TOP 10 – Sergio Rodriguez has scored 2.752 points in his EuroLeague career and is now in the All-time Top 10 ahead of Marcus Brown. Ante Tomic is ninth, 17 points ahead but he’s active. The eighth place belongs to Milos Teodosic with 2,807 points.

EL CHACHO FROM THE LINE – Sergio Rodriguez has an open streak of 22 free throws consecutively made and is 47/49 for the season.

CHACHO’S THREES – Sergio Rodriguez overtook Gianluca Basile and rose to sixth place in the all-time three-pointers made in his EuroLeague career. El Chacho has scored at least one three-point basket in each of his last 10 games.

RODRIGUEZ AND THE ASSISTS – Sergio Rodriguez has 1,227 career assists. During this season he surpassed Milos Teodosic and Thomas Heurtel, but was in turn overtaken by Nick Calathes.

KALEB IS THE TOP REBOUNDER – During the Istanbul game, Kaleb Tarczewski exceeded 500 points and 400 career rebounds. The 19 points scored against Fenerbahce and the 27 of index rating are both career highs. Tarczewski is the all-time Olimpia’s top rebounder in the EuroLeague with 432. He is followed by Arturas Gudaitis. Vlado Micov is fourth with 237.

 

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