A sold-out arena will host the revenge of the last three Italian league championship series, between the defending champions of Olimpia Milan and Virtus Bologna, the league-leading team (8-2). The last time Mediolanum Forum welcomed these two teams, it was Game 7, a memorable night, sculpted indelibly in the club history book. Olimpia is coming back home after a week spent travelling, with some frustrations to overcome. After a big win in Belgrade over Red Star, unexpectedly Olimpia lost five straight games. Twice, against Pistoia and in Sassari, the team performed way under its potential; in Munich and Belgrade again, to the contrary, had some impeccable stretches of basketball and had the game essentially won. Both times, it threw it way. In Munich, it was over the last 55 seconds, blowing up a six-point lead, to lose in overtime; in Belgrade, Olimpia looked totally in control of the game, ahead by 15 in the middle of the third quarter and suddenly melted and allowed Partizan a quick comeback.
Inevitably, this game is becoming more and more important, not just because of the rivalry and the emotional impact. Virtus is clearly a healthy team, who is playing with a lot of confidence and enthusiasm, they don’t have any pressure to win this game because the record is solid. For Olimpia, it is much more relevant than this, in spite of playing with no Billy Baron and no Nikola Mirotic, a reduced rotation and less offensive weapon to count on. “We are coming off a tough week, and because of that we need to go on the court showing toughness, emotional involvement, playing humble and with deep attention. We have a lot of these, but practically are not enough to close a lot of games off. Munich and Belgrade were a big lesson: we need to work until we’ll reach the necessary consistency for the entire game”, Coach Ettore Messina said.
Storylines abound around this game, as always, starting with the many players who used to play for the other team: Daniel Hackett, Awudu Abass on one side, Giampaolo Ricci on the other; both coaches have worked and won for the other club in the past. This is something that is abundantly clear. However, the game is important itself for Olimpia. “The crowd will help us as it always does when the times are hard. We need to play Olimpia basketball, with cohesion, help on both ends of the floor, as it is written on our DNA,” Messina added.
Tip-off time on Sunday, December, 10th, is 17:30
