Olimpia left today for a week-long trip that includes two EuroLeague road games, in Munich and Kaunas, and an Italian league game in Sassari. In the international competition, these are the third and fourth road games over the first five rounds. Olimpia traveled to Germany to play against a Bayern team with which it has often engaged in thrilling battles in recent years, with dramatic comebacks and tense finishes. The game will be played at SAP Garden, Bayern Munich’s new arena, which can hold up to 11,500 spectators and is virtually always packed. It was here that Bayern lost to Zalgiris last week, a heavy defeat later tempered by a league win over Bamberg. Olimpia’s path has been similar: a painful home defeat against AS Monaco followed by a comfortable win in Varese. Both teams are dealing with significant injuries: Bayern lost point guard Stefan Jovic against Bamberg, and he is doubtful for tomorrow’s game, in a situation already affected by the long-term injuries of Rokas Jokubaitis and Johannes Voigtmann, who, however, should be close to returning. Center Wenyen Gabriel was also missing against Zalgiris, but his injury was minor, so he might play tomorrow. Olimpia will obviously be without Zach LeDay and Josh Nebo, so the starting center-forward combo that secured the win in Belgrade against Red Star Belgrade will be out. Coach Messina has implemented a Plan B by using Devin Booker at power forward as well and incorporating the charismatic Bryant Dunston into the rotation, but the depth is limited now. Olimpia has so far obtaines far less than it deserved: it lost in Belgrade to Partizan shooting to win at the buzzer; and lost to Monaco in a game he it had the three-pointer to tie the score up, so a bit of luck will also be needed.
NOTES – Bayern Munich-Olimpia Milano is scheduled to be played on Tuesday, October 14th at Munich’s SAP Garden.
THE REFEREES – Miguel Angel Perez (Spain), Joseph Bissang (France), Leandro Lezcano (Argentina).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA– “Bayern is a team capable to play a good uptempo basketball with a great scorer like Andreas Obast who can definitely change the outlook of any game with his shooting. Despite struggling to cope with some injuries, thay are still a deep team. As any EuroLeague road game, intensity, rebounding and shot selection will be the crucial factors for us especially being limited among the bigs rotation.”
DEVIN BOOKER – “It is a very challenging game for us, especially because we will miss a couple of key guys. As a result, it will be a very tough road game in Munich and intensity, aggressiveness right from the beginning and for the entire game will be absolutely required to win it.”
BAYERN OUTLOOK – Bayern, still coached by Gordon Herbert, who won the 2023 World Cup with Germany, has made significant changes to its roster compared to last season: key players Nick Weiler-Babb, Shabazz Napier, Carsen Edwards, and Devin Booker have all left. Andreas Obst (15.3 points per game as of now, the most prolific player on Bayern’s roster), Vladimir Lucic, Oscar Da Silva, and Johannes Voigtmann remain, although Voigtmann is injured, as is Rokas Jokubaitis, who was signed during the summer. One of the new additions, point guard Stefan Jovic, is returning to Munich, having played for Bayern from 2017 to 2019. Jovic (3.0 points and 4.3 assists per game so far) is sharing minutes at the point with Justus Hollatz, a European and World Cup winner and tough defender, and Kamar Baldwin, a combo who faced Olimpia in the 2024 Italian league playoffs when he was in Trento and spent the ensuing year in Vitoria (he is averaging 6.0 points and 2.3 assists per game, shooting 42.9 percent on threes). The guards are the bomber Andreas Obst (40.8 percent from three for his career), a player who takes six three-point shots for every two-point shot (12 for 28 so far from three-point range), the American Justunian Jessup (4.3 points and 3.0 rebounds per night), taken from Ulm where he played last year, leading the team to the Germany’s championship series, and Xavier Rathan-Mayes, in his second experience in the EuroLeague after a year in Madrid, a player of great physical strength who is averaging 11.7 and 3.7 assists per game. The forwards are the veteran Lucic, who has been with Bayern since 2016 (5.0 points and 3.7 rebounds per game this season); power forward Oscar Da Silva, a former Barcelona player, is in his second year at Bayern and is averaging 6.0 points per game while shooting 9-for-10 from the field at this point; and Niels Giffey, another excellent shooter and veteran, in his fourth season in Munich (he is averaging 6.0 points per game). The new addition at the forward spot is Isiaha Mike, a forward with defensive toughness, who was with Partizan last year, spent time in Bourg but also has appearances on the Canadian national team. Right now, he is averaging 11.7 points per game. Center Wenyen Gabriel, a South Sudanese international, who last season played first at Maccabi and then at Panathinaikos, has NBA experience. He is a vertical leaper, an interior player who averages 7.5 points per game, although he didn’t play against Zalgiris beacuse of an injury. His back-up is David McCormack, another inside player who is 8-for-13 from the field so far. Germans Leon Kratzer, who played in Paris last season and right now is starting, and Elias Harris complete the lineup while awaiting the return of Johannes Voigtmann, who can obviously play at two positions.
THE BAYERN CONNECTION – Devin Booker played for Bayern from 2016 to 2019 and again from 2023 to 2025, making 72 EuroLeague appearances. Diego Flaccadori played for Bayern from 2019 to 2021, making 44 EuroLeague appearances. Leandro Bolmaro played in 30 games for Bayern, scoring 252 points. Johannes Voigtmann played in 64 games, scoring 384 points, also winning two league titles with Olimpia. David McCormack made his EuroLeague debut last season with Olimpia before moving to Alba Berlin.
GAME NOTES – Marko Guduric is six three-pointers shy of 400 for his career, a feat achieved by only 19 players before him. Devin Booker has crossed the 800-rebound threshold in his career. Shavon Shields has made a three-pointer in 22 of his last 23 EuroLeague games. Lorenzo Brown has played his 200th EuroLeague game last week vs Monaco.
