Olimpia returns in front of its people, at the Unipol Forum, after four consecutive road games between the EuroLeague and Serie A and four wins in a row which have improved the standings in both competitions. In the Italian league, Olimpia has won the last three games, overtaking Reggiana, its opponent of the day. At stake there is probably the fifth place in the Italian Cup bracket, but more than that it’d be an important win to keep improving the record entering in the second half of the regular season. Olimpia’s morale is high after Belgrade’s record-setting win over Maccabi. Never in its 89-year history had Olimpia beaten Maccabi in such a clear way on the road. If in the first two games of this road little winning streak, Olimpia had won mostly with defense (apart from Shavon Shields’ stratospheric shooting display in Treviso), in the last two Olimpia scored over one hundred points and won with a 65-point overall margin. But Reggio Emilia is a confident team too: in Bonn, in a crucial battle for its European journey, it took over in the fourth period with an exceptional performance by Jaylen Barford. So Reggiana is coming to Milan with its experienced players, such as Winston, Barford, Jamar Smith, Faried and Michele Vitali, and a lot of self confidence. Olimpia will once again have to face a tough situation among the big men because Josh Nebo has been joined in the injury list by Ousmane Diop. In accordance with the “Next Man Up Mentality” the team is using, Willie Caruso will have to support the team as he has already done in other moments of the season. “We face one of the beste defensive teams in the league and moving the ball, involving all the players on the court will be crucial for us. This and limiting their big men ability to rebound the ball,” assistant coach Mario Fioretti said.

Tip-off time on Sunday, January 12, will be 17:00

REGGIO EMILIA OUTLOOK – Reggiana’s first scorer in this first half of the season was Cassius Winston, a combo guard from Michigan State, a NBA second-round pick (Oklahoma City) and with a year of EuroLeague experience at Bayern Munich. Winston is averaging 15.6 points, 5.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game while shooting 38.0 percent from three-point range. Jaylen Barford (Arkansas, then a lot of Italian experiences in Pesaro, Rome and Cremona) averages 13.6 points per game and was the team’s hero in the last FIBA BCL road win in Bonn. Jamar Smith, who just returned from and injury, is another veteran guard who scores 11.8 points per game on 63.8 percent two-point shooting. Among the guards, Reggio Emilia also counts on Lorenzo Uglietti (4.1 points and 2.1 assists per game) as a point guard and on shooter Michele Vitali (3.9 points per game) as a wing. Coach Dimitris Prifits normally implements three-guard lineups or bigger lineups featuring Sasha Grant, a defensive specialist, at the small forward spot. Grant, who has started 11 times so far, averages 4.5 points per game. The starting power forward of the lineup is Kwan Cheatham (10.1 points and 5.9 rebounds on average), but Reggiana signed in that same spot Kenneth Faried, a former NBA star in Denver, 7.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, 35 years old but still whith a lot of energy in the paint. He has played five games so far. The centers are Momo Faye (9.4 points and 8.3 rebounds on average), who is shooting 64.0 percent from the field, and the Frenchman and former Sassari player Stephane Gombaud (6.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game). The rotation is potentially completed by Matteo Chillo (1.2 points and 1.3 rebounds on average).

Stefano Tonut

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