Last week, Olimpia faced a CSKA Moscow team coming from 11 consecutive wins, this time Olimpia go to Madrid – to start the second half of the regular season – and find a team that has won 11 of the last 12 games played and is 16-1 in the Spanish league. Real Madrid is one of the main contenders, despite having lost during the season first the starting point guard Facundo Campazzo, who moved to Denver in the NBA, and then forward Anthony Randolph, who had a season-ending injury. The roster was fixed with the addition of the intimidator Alex Tyus. Olimpia have won three of their last four road games and was three minutes away from completing the job in Barcelona too. The job has been made more complicated by Shavon Shields’ late scratch. The two teams use differently the three-point shot: Olimpia is very accurate, making 40.5 percent of its three-point attempts, Real Madrid is the team that shoots more from the arc, over 29 times per game, albeit with less accurate percentages. The presence of Edy Tavares in the middle is obviously reason for concern for everybody facing Real Madrid. Thanks to him, Real Madrid is second in defensive rebounds and blocks. On the other hand, Olimpia won the Milan game by eight when Sergio Rodriguez scored 27 points and led the second half comeback against his former team.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are playing against a great opponent. In spite of losing Facundo Campazzo and Anthony Randolph, Real Madrid kept playing at a very high level. It’s a team very deep and experienced that unfortunately we have to meet with no Shavon Shields and no Vlado Micov. This will force us to reinvent our game plan.”
SERGIO RODRIGUEZ – “We’ll try to do our best in a game very difficult, because Real Madrid is obviously a great team. We have a lot of confidence in our work so I’m positive we are going to do well. Entering into the second half of the season, for us it’s important to keep improving and keep working hard as we have been doing since the beginning.”
THE REFEREES – Robert Lottermoser (Germany), Emin Mogulkoc (Turkey), Piotr Pastusiak (Poland)
REAL MADRID – Pablo Laso’s team (in his tenth season with Real Madrid) have won the last six EuroLeague games and last weekend won two La Liga games, in Tenerife and Andorra, strengthening its leadership in the standings. Real Madrid has just announced the signing of Alex Tyus. In the two Spanish league games, Coach Laso did not use Sergio Llull and Gabriel Deck for precautionary reasons, but both are available for the Olimpia games. Edy Tavares (11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game) is the team best scorer and rebounder as well as the best blocker (1.9 per game). In addition, he shoots extremely well, 68.8 percent from the field and 75.5 percent from the line. The other big man, Trey Thompkins, a veteran of the EuroLeague, is scoring 10.9 points per game on 57.7 percent shooting from two, 45.3 percent from three. Usman Garuba, the second-best team’s shot-blocker, is another player on the rise. Obviously, veterans such as Sergio Llull, the shooting phenom Jaycee Carroll (43.2 percent from three, with two threes he basically closed the game in Istanbul with Efes), Rudy Fernandez and Fabien Causeur play a major role on the team. Alberto Abalde, taken from Valencia in the summer, is always starting on the perimeter. Obviously since Campazzo left, Nicolas Laprovittola is having an important role as the team point-guard.
THE REAL MADRID CONNECTION – Sergio Rodriguez played for Real Madrid for six seasons, when he returned from the NBA and before moving back to Philadelphia. In these six seasons he has won the EuroLeague in 2015, he was the MVP of the competition in 2014, he won the Spanish title three times, the King’s Cup four times, the Spanish Super Cup three times. Twice he has won the assist crown in the Spanish league. In 2018/19, with CSKA Moscow, he defeated Real Madrid in the semifinal game on the way to his second European title. Ettore Messina coached Real Madrid for nearly two years with a 23-13 EuroLeague record. Among his players in that period of time, he had Sergio Llull and Felipe Reyes, as well as Sergio Rodriguez. Michael Roll was Fabien Causeur’s teammate in Vitoria.
NOTES – Gigi Datome has an open streak of 23 free throws made. Kevin Punter has had at least one steal in 11 of his last 12 EuroLeague appearances. He has also scored at least one three in each of the last 23 EuroLeague games played and has gone into double figures in 18 of the last 19. Malcolm Delaney has scored at least one three in 11 consecutive games, and he has recorded at least 1 steal in seven straight games. Zach LeDay‘s 12/12 from the line, against CSKA tied up the club record in the EuroLeague for the highest number of free throws made in a game without missing any that already belonged to Luca Vitali. The record of free throws in a single game belongs to Danilo Gallinari with 13. Kyle Hines is ranked 13th all-time with 2,580 points scored, just four points behind Rudy Fernandez of Real Madrid, who is 12th and will be on the court too. Hines is ranked third all-time with 245 blocked shots, four behind Fran Vazquez who is second with 249.
