Olimpia is starting a streak of four consecutive home games between the EuroLeague and the Italia League, but the first game is obviously against a terrific Barcelona team that after a summer of moving and shaking has put together a roster with championship aspirations. It is a great challenge: Barcelona is still unbeaten and in first place while Olimpia is coming off four consecutive wins.
OLIMPIA – In Berlin, for the first time this year in the EuroLeague, the coaching staff had more than 12 players available for registration. Shelvin Mack, back in Rome last Sunday, is available. Jeff Brooks, out in the last two EuroLeague games, is available. In Berlin, Nemanja Nedovic also returned (12 points all in the second half). After the 4-for-22 night in Munich, in the last four games Olimpia was 42-for-86 from the arc, and now it is first in the league and it is also first in three-point shooting percentage allowed, right in front of Barcelona, which is first for total rebounds and first for points allowed, just 70.6 per game.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We play against a phenomenal opponent, one of the candidates, if not the candidate, for the final trophy. Barcelona is full of experienced players while Nikola Mirotic is their reference player. They are deep, athletic and great at running. We need to control the rebounds and limit the turnovers to keep Barcelona from taking advantage of its terrific transition offense. For us it is also an opportunity to measure ourselves against the highest level and we’ll do it without thinking about the good start that we had or to what will come next.”
SERGIO RODRIGUEZ – “I expect a Mediolanum Forum full of energy, as it has been for the whole season and we will try to feed off that energy to be intense and focused for 40 minutes, knowing that they have talent, have size and from our part we must be as physical as possible ourselves.”
THE OPPONENT – Barcelona in the summer signed two players from the first All-EuroLeague team last season, Cory Higgins – who won the championship with CSKA – and the big man Brandon Davies, coming from Zalgiris. Higgins currently is a 57.1% shooter from three; Davies is the best shot-blocker in the league. Barcelona also signed from the NBA Alex Abrines and Nikola Mirotic, the most unexpected signing of the off-season, a forward who appeared in 319 NBA games and averaged 12.3 points per game. Mirotic is scoring 19.4 points per game so far. Malcolm Delaney, who led Lokomotiv Kuban to the Final Four in 2016 before going to the NBA and China, was a late addition, due to the injury of Thomas Heurtel, a 5.6 assist per game point guard. Barcelona also kept all its big names: Adam Hanga (best defender of the year in 2017), the shooter Kyle Kuric, the point guard Kevin Pangos, Victor Claver and the legendary center Ante Tomic, the first player in history to score at least 1000 two-point baskets in EuroLeague, as well as the fourth ever as a rebounder. The coach is still Svetislav Pesic who brought Barcelona to the continental title in 2003.
