The Kazan game opens the third week with two EuroLeague rounds of the season, but this time they are both going to be played on the road. Olimpia will stay in Russia for five days, moving from Kazan to St. Petersburg and thus completing a cycle of three consecutive road games. In the previous two weeks with two games, Olimpia compiled a 3-1 record. No EuroLeague team has won all four games played with short rest (it also applies to the first game because everyone faces it after a domestic league game). Unics Kazan has played five times at home so far, has lost its first two games but has won the last three, including a big win over Real Madrid. Two high-performing defensive teams are facing off: Unics Kazan is second in assists allowed to opponents behind Olimpia and is first in forced turnovers, 15.0 per game, or in steals (9.8) so much so that the Russian team is the best in the assists/turnovers ratio by the opponent, right in front of Olimpia.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA– “Kazan, after a difficult start, has improved steadily behind the lead of Coach Perasovic, has won some games and more importantly is playing with a clear hierarchy and a clear understanding of everybody roles on the team. We face a well-organized and really aggressive defense, so taking care of the ball and limiting turnovers will be one of the keys to try to win on a very difficult court”.
DINOS MITOGLOU – “We face a very aggressive and athletic team that has improved a lot during the last few weeks and, especially on its home court, has been able to get some big wins. We have to play hard and be very focused on both ends of the floor for 40 minutes.”
THE REFEREES – Boris Ryzhyk (Ukraine), Milivoje Jovcic (Serbia), Milos Koljensic (Montenegro).
UNICS KAZAN – It is fresh from a big Athens’ win over Panathinaikos with a clutch field goal made by Lorenzo Brown. So far, it has always kept its pace and scoring down, has also lost twice in the closing possessions, by one point with St. Petersburg, by three points at Villeurbanne. The point guard Lorenzo Brown is the most used player with over 30 minutes per game on the court, and he is averaging 11.2 points with 4.3 assists per game. Key players are the guard Isaiah Canaan, the player who has attempted more three-point shots than anyone else in the EuroLeague (37.9 percent) and averages 13.1 points per game; and Croatian swingman Mario Hezonja, 13.4 points per game, 5.3 rebounds while shooting over 58 percent from two. John Brown, an extremely energetic power forward, averages 7.2 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. The center is Tonye Jekiri, who is playing for the third consecutive different EuroLeague team, averages 6.9 points, 6.9 rebounds per game, while shooting 60 percent from the field, and is a very dangerous offensive rebounder. The very experienced Andrey Vorontsevich, 282 appearances in the EuroLeague, in his first year away from CSKA Moscow, 34, has scored 42 points during the last three games. The rookie Jarrell Brantley and point guard Marco Spissu, averaging 4.9 points and 42.1 percent from three in 15 minutes per game, complete the rotation. Finally, there is a special talent like OJ Mayo, eight years spent in the NBA, the last one in 2016 in Milwaukee, who is the EuroLeague player with the most appearances in the NBA, who at this time is not playing much. Unics signed also the veterano forward Janis Timma, but he is not registered yet.
HISTORY LESSON – There are only four games previously played between these two teams and all recent, with Unics leading the all-time series 3-1. During the 2011/12 season, in the Top 16, Kazan won 59-44 at home, but Olimpia took revenge by winning 63-58 in Milan with 16 points scored by Antonis Fotsis. During the 2017/18 season, Kazan won both games, 100-79 and 91-68.
THE KAZAN CONNECTION – Andrey Vorontsevich played for CSKA Moscow along Sergio Rodriguez and Kyle Hines, winning the 2019 EuroLeague with both and the 2016 with Hines only. Coach Ettore Messina coached him at CSKA Moscow. Gianmarco Pozzecco coached Marco Spissu in Sassari. Mario Hezonja played for Panathinaikos last year along Dinos Mitoglou. John Brown played in Brindisi with Riccardo Moraschini. Finally, Velimir Perasovic coached Shavon Shields at Vitoria, while the general manager of Unics, Claudio Coldebella, has been at Olimpia both as a player and as an assistant coach.
DEFENSE! – The 43 points allowed by Olimpia to Fenerbahce are representing the best defensive performance in the EuroLeague in the club’s history. During the same game Olimpia allowed just three points in the first quarter and this is also a club record. This season, Olimpia has allowed less than 10 points in a single quarter three times. Currently, Olimpia is first in terms of opponents’ index rating (68.8), assists allowed (12.6), two-point opponents field goals (49.5 percent) and three-point shooting (28.2 percent). It is second for points allowed, 67.9.
MELLI STOLE THE BALL!!! – Nicolò Melli set his new career high with six steals in Istanbul against Fenerbahce, including three in the first quarter. This is the second-best performance in club’s history. The record belongs to Travis Watson with seven steals, on 31 January 2008 against Le Mans. David Hawkins also had six, against Panionios on November 27, 2008.
GAME NOTES – Sergio Rodriguez has scored 791 points for Olimpia and enters this game nine points away from 800. Shavon Shields has just passed the 600-point scored for Olimpia barrier (now he has 610). They are seventh and 13th ever in the Milan scoring list. With 4.11 per game, Nicolò Melli is sixth overall for fouls received, the list is led by Shane Larkin with 5.11 per game. With an average of 4.44 he is also the fourth-best defensive rebounder (Georgios Papagiannis is first, with 5.67). With 2.22 per game, Devon Hall is seventh overall for made threes, a list led by Vasilije Micic with 3.00, and is sixth overall in terms of accuracy, 47.62 percent. He made at least one three in eight of the nine games that he played. Sergio Rodriguez is fourth with 4.67 assists per game, about one less than the leader Nick Calathes (5.56). Shavon Shields with an average of 30:11 minutes per game is the fifth most used player in the EuroLeague. Five players are played over 30 minutes per game on average. Shields has had at least one steal and one three in eight of nine games played (including last season, he has had at least one made three in 13 of his last 14 games played) and has hit all of his last 10 free throws attempted. Gigi Datome played his 250th game in Istanbul. He was the 26th player to reach this milestone, but the first Italian to do so. Datome has scored 2,145 career points, 18 behind the Italian record holder, Gianluca Basile.
