New year, new point guard. Shabazz Napier, who has already played two games in the Italian league, makes his EuroLeague debut with Olimpia after nine appearances (9.8 points per game) with Red Star. He will bring a bit of ball handling, shooting and personality at a time when Olimpia is decimated by absences and therefore forced to implement never-seen-before lineups, like the one that resulted in the victory over Baskonia last Friday with three big men on the court simultaneously almost all the time. Compared to that game, with the absences confirmed, there is indeed a Napier to add against the Olympiacos defense, which with 73.9 points allowed on average is the best in the competition. The Athens team is 5-4 at home, where they lost more than they are used to, historically, but they had to overcome their share of injuries that has now been resolved. The two teams share another anomaly: the point differential suggests a different position in the standings. Olympiacos has +45, fourth overall, better than that of second-placed Virtus Bologna and fourth-placed AS Monaco or sixth-placed Fenerbahce. The same goes for Olimpia which is +42. Olympiacos is a defensive team, third in terms of shooting percentage allowed to their opponents on twos, 51.7 percent, thanks to the presence in the middle of two intimidating centers such as Moustapha Fall and Nikola Milutinov. Tip off time will be 20:15 Italian time.
THE REFEREES – Robert Lottermoser (Germany), Sasa Pukl (Slovenija), Luka Kardum (Slovenija)
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “Olympiacos is a very physical, well-organized team, which currently has the best defense in the competition. For us it will be essential to play with great attention to details, defend well especially on their middle pick and roll and with no letdowns, in intensity for the entire 40 minutes. Offensively, we will first of all have to be patient and move the ball. We know we have a roster decimated but exactly for this reason we will have to play an intelligent game, and helping each other as we did in similar circumstances against Baskonia”.
NICOLO’ MELLI – “Olympiacos is a very experienced team, solid, well organized and very impactful home court. We are missing some players, but we have shown lately that we can play good games despite the problems that we might have by playing with attention and ready to sacrifice. In Athens, we’ll try to play another good one. In order to do it we’ll have to stay together for 40 minutes and help each other both offensively and defensively”
OLYMPIACOS OUTLOOK – Coach Georgios Bartzokas traditionally always uses the same lineup, except for absences. Thomas Walkup is the point guard (9.7 points and 4.5 assists per game), alongside Isaiah Canaan, an offensive player who averages 12.3 points with 50.0 percent three-point shooting. At small forward, of course, there’s the experienced Kostas Papanikolau, one of the historic “Big Three” of Olympiacos with Sloukas and Printezis. Papanikolau is averaging 6.8 points per game, adding 4.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists on average. But he is also an extraordinary defensive player. The power forward is the American shooter Alec Peters (15.4 points and 5.4 rebounds on average), a very efficient player, who shoots 63.3percent from two, 50.0 percent from three. The center is Moustapha Fall, a player of enormous size who is difficult to contain inside the area, once he has received the ball deep, so much so that this year he is shooting 75.8 percent on twos. For him there are also 5.4 rebounds per game. The alternative is Nikola Milutinov, back home after a long stint in Moscow. He is averaging 8.2 points per game, shooting 60.6 percent on twos, gets 4.3 rebounds on average, but above all is a terrifying offensive rebounder. The bench is traditionally deep. Nigel Williams-Goss (9.0 points and 3.1 assists per game) had some physical problems but has been back for a few weeks. Last year, he was an important player for European champions Real Madrid. The Lithuanian Canadian Ignas Bradzeikis, who came from Zalgiris right before the season started, has so far not replicated the numbers he had in Kaunas (currently he is averaging 3.6 points per game). The Greek Giannoulis Larentzakis is a player of great energy and competitive spirit (6.4 points on average). Shaquielle McKissic, back on the court after missing the first nine games, is a swingman with remarkable physicality (4.4 points per game, 58.3 percent from two). Naz Mitrou-Long is available to make his debut against Olimpia after a short time in Kaunas. Luke Sikma, arrived from Alba Berlin, also had physical problems to deal with (2.4 points and 2.5 rebounds on average). Finally, Filip Petrusev (2.7 points and 3.0 rebounds average) arrived from the NBA during the season and can be used both as a power forward and as a center.
HISTORY VS. OLYMPIACOS –There have been 26 previous games between these two teams in the EuroLeague. Olimpia have won nine times and lost 17. In Piraeus the record is 11-2 for Olympiacos. Olimpia won in Piraeus on March 6, 2014, 88-86, with Keith Langford scoring 20 points in that game including the decisive three-pointer. The second win dates to the first leg of the 2018/19 season, in which Olimpia won with a resounding 99-75. There have been two games before the existence of the EuroLeague. During the 1996/97 season, Olympiacos won 87-84 at home; Olimpia won in Milan 73-71. So, the overall record is 19-10 for the Greek team. Olimpia has won the Milan game this season, 65-53 with 20 points scored by Nikola Mirotic.
THE OLYMPIACOS CONNECTION – Christos Stavropoulos, Olimpia’s general manager, spent 19 years at Olympiacos, winning the EuroLeague twice, among other things. Both triumphs featured Kyle Hines who played for Olympiacos for two years before moving to CSKA Moscow. During his two years at Olympiacos, Hines played 53 EuroLeague games scoring 503 points and grabbing 286 rebounds. Milan Tomic has been a legendary player from the 1997 EuroLeague winning team at Olympiacos where he also served as an assistant coach. This should also be the first EuroLeague game with Olympiacos for Naz Mitrou-Long who spent the last season in Milan, helping the team win the Italian league championship.
NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – Nicolò Melli has just passed Georgios Printezis and is sitting in 4th place all-time for defensive rebounds grabbed in the EuroLeague. He is 18 defensive rebounds shy of the 3rd place that belongs to Felipe Reyes (1.094).
NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES 2 – The 21 points scored against Baskonia are his career-high in the EuroLeague for Olimpia. The previous high was 20 and dates back to the home game against Zalgiris in the 2013/14 season. His all-time record is 28 points. It was the eighth game that he scored 20 or more points in his career. In these games his team’s record is 6-2.
JO VOIGTMANN NOTES – Johannes Voigtmann is the third Olimpia player to win the Round’s MVP award this season. Shavon Shields received it after the home game against Asvel and Maodo Lo after the road game against Red Star. Voigtmann had a 29 rating in the win over Baskonia. This is the thirteenth time overall that an Olimpia player has been MVP of the round. Before Voigtmann there were Mike Hall, Omar Cook, Curtis Jerrells, Alessandro Gentile, Samardo Samuels, Jamel McLean, Ricky Hickman, Mike James, Nicolò Melli, Brandon Davies and indeed Shields and Lo.
