A terrific 22-0 run in the hearth of the third period allowed Olimpia to turn a close battle into a blowout against a determined Sassari team. 80-65 was the final score. Dinamo was held to 22 second-half points. Particularly impressive was the third period because Sassari stormed into the court and scored eight points over the first three possessions, on its way to buil a eight-point worrisome lead. Coach Messina resisted the urge of calling a time-out, trusted his team becoming more physical and aggressive defensively. The wall was erected aroung Kyle Hines who started to protect the rim as it was his house, generating transition opportunities. All of a sudden, Olimpia scored at will, with Nikola Mirotic, in his first game back, Stefano Tonut on a break but really everybody helped. The third period was closed by a Shavon Shields buzzer beating that essentially sealed the win in a heartbeat.

“In the first half – Coach Messina said at the end – we couldn’t find a way to stop their offense and Shabazz Napier kept us alive with his scoring. In the second half, when we started being more aggressive, switching more on defense we had some great defensive minutes. Nikola was back, the kid Suigo made his first Serie A basket so that was an happy Sunday.” The game was close in the first half, with Napier scoring 14 first-half points. Nikola Mirotic took over in the second half. He was limited to 14 minutes and scored 16 points, going repeatedly to the line. During the decisive run, he assisted Devon Hall for a corner three, made four free throws, one three and that was it.

Much more important was to be able to rest Nicolò Melli and Johannes Voigtmann. “Melli experienced some cramps last Friday due to overloading. This is a potentially dangerous situation so we took the precautionary route – Messina explained -. Regarding Voigtmann we anticipated some resting days to let him recharge. We are entering into a tough week so we’ll need to be extrasmart in managing minutes.”