After a one-day break between games, Olimpia left for Sardinia today for the now traditional playoff semifinal stop in Sassari, exactly as it has happened four other times over the last nine years. The goal is to repeat the outcome of a season ago and to close the series immediately, avoiding the mistake made in Pesaro where the opponent, with the back to the wall, managed to force a fourth game. Dinamo proved in Game 2 that it is a very competitive team as it clarified by winning 10 games out of 15 in the regular second half and by eliminating Reyer Venezia in the quarterfinals. Dinamo is expecting a big impact by the home crowd, as Coach Piero Bucchi remarked before leaving Milan. In Game 2, his team didn’t shoot well from three, one of his team’s best weapons, but when Sassari took the lead at the beginning of the game it did it with Eimantas Bendzius’ three-point shooting, and when it came back in the fourth period, again, three-point shooting was the key, because it’s not the shooters who are lacking in Sassari and Olimpia’s defensive task isn’t easy anyway. There is a lot of floor to cover when the ball is moving searching for the best possible look.
Of course, this also applies to Olimpia too. In Game 2, Milan shot well attacking the rim and so did Sassari with its pick and roll that involved DeShawn Stephens and Ousmane Diop, but three-pointers are vital to open up defenses. In Game 1, Olimpia was almost unreal at shooting the ball from downtown (by the way Billy Baron has an active streak of 17 games with at least one three-pointer, he went 3-for-5 two nights ago). In Game 2, it wasn’t, while Johannes Voigtmann after making 10 straight threes over the previous two games proved to be able to miss sometimes (jokes aside he is 10-for-12 over the last three outings). This is why it was so important to win the game anyway, as Coach Ettore Messina underlined: “There are games when you shoot very well and you take over, others when it doesn’t happen, and you have to find other ways to win.”
Gigi Datome, however, has good momentum entering into Game 3 after pulling off the best game of his complicated season right when Olimpia needed it tremendously. Olimpia will still be without Paul Biligha, whose shoulder injured in Game 1 will keep him out for the rest of the series. More work for thr regulars among the big men. Nicolò Melli is coming off a tough night, shooting, but he grabbed eight rebounds again and set the tone one more time. He is now second all-time in club’s history for rebounds grabbed in the playoffs. He is now chasing from afar the great Dino Meneghin after overcoming the legendary Bob McAdoo. Tip-off time in Sassari will be 21:00, on Thursday night.
