The quarter-final with Trento has been left behind, thanks to the two consecutive road wins. Now, it is on to the semifinals with Brescia, a series that starts again in Milan for Games 1 and 2. Olimpia faces it encouraged by the quality shown in the most recent games, as the numbers say: 89.5 points per game on average (second-best in the playoffs), 61.8 percent two-point shooting (first overall), 40.9 percent three-point shooting (second-best) and also 7.3 steals per game, the best figure of the entire post-season, so far. However, the only team that scored more than Olimpia was Brescia, the only team to average more than 90 points per game, thanks above all to the highly effective use of the three-point shot. During the series against Pistoia, Germani shot over 48 percent from beyond the arc, and was also the only semi-finalist to have closed the series in just three games. Therefore, Brescia will storm into the Unipol Forum with more than a week of rest. In the regular season, what separated the two teams was only one Olimpia won. The previous two games between the teams are largely irrelevant: the first dates back to the end of December and Olimpia had neither Shields nor Mirotic; the second is recent but Mirotic was still missing, and Brescia didn’t have Semaj Christon, so they resorted to lots of minutes of zone defense in order to contain Olimpia. The constant is that both games ended in the last minute or so. Brescia is also the team that uses its low post game the most with the Croatian specialist Miro Bilan, who however Olimpia has already faced at this level when he was in Sassari and was already paired with Jason Burnell, a low-post forward scorer. In the playoffs so far, Bilan has been the best rebounder, but he is also scoring a lot and shooting well (66.7 percent on twos). The fact remains that Brescia is a team with a consolidated core built around Della Valle, Gabriel, Petrucelli, Cobbins. Amedeo Della Valle, a former Olimpia marksman, averaged over 20 points per game in the quarterfinals, second only to Shavon Shields, and was one of the five players who shot over 50.0 percent from three as did his backcourt mate CJ Massinburg.

Olimpia was able to win twice in Trento without Shields, who was a terror in the first two games. Nicolò Melli has an open streak of three games scoring in double figures, something that usually spells good news for Olimpia. In general, everyone gave something or a lot. But if Olimpia has won all its nine semifinal games played during the Messina era, this series looks different from the previous three, against a team that has already won an Italian Cup, has been sitting among the best for years and during this season showed to be clearly ready to aim for the championship. The series starts on Saturday evening at 20:45, Game 2 is scheduled for Monday, same tip-off time.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It is going to be a very complicated series, but this is nothing new since at this points the remaining teams are the best in the league. Brescia is a team with physical guards, a great shooter like Amedeo Della Valle, they are well organized strategically. So, as always at these levels, little detail will be crucial, I mean not allowing easy transition scores, no offensive rebounds, give the right value to each and every possession. We come off a tough Trento series. They are an aggressive team who penetrated a lot to score at the rim and to generate open looks. We struggled to enter into the series mentally and basketball-wise. But over time, I saw people willing to pass the ball instinctively, to help each other, willing to suffer when it was time to suffer during the road games especially. So, I feel that was a series that prepared us for this semifinal series we face with the right amount of confidence.”

GERMANI BRESCIA OUTLOOK – Semaj Christon, Amedeo Della Valle and Miro Bilan are perennial starters under Coach Alessandro Magro. Christon (10.8 points and 4.4 assists on average) is the point guard, a player who rarely uses his three-point shot (31.9 percent on 1.5 attempts per game) but has great personality and leadership, a +7.4 plus/minus and is the most used averaging 26.5 minutes on the court. Della Valle (13.7 points per game) is the first perimeter option; he is 42.3 percent from three on over five attempts and his 91.4 percent from the free throw line makes him practically a lock when it comes to shooting free throws. Bilan (averaging 13.0 points and 8.5 rebounds per game overall) is an extremely experienced center, a master of the low post game, although this year he has shown new weapons, such as the three-point shot and the floater. He shoots 60.9 percent from two on 8.5 attempts per game and is a fearsome offensive rebounder (2.9 per game). Curiously, he has already played in a semifinal against Olimpia, two years ago when he was in Sassari (15.0 points and 9.6 rebounds per game). When available (he did not play in the series with Pistoia), John Petrucelli (9.6 points per game) is the preferred choice at small forward. He is the classic “3-and-D”, a defensive specialist, aggressive on the ball, who knows how to shoot threes. As a power forward the most frequent choice is the veteran Kenny Gabriel (7.9 points per average), a perimeter shooter who attempts almost five threes twenty minutes per game. The designated sixth man, playing both as a point guard and a shooting guard, is CJ Massinburg (12.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game), a powerful player who shoots with great efficiency: he is 56.8 percent from two, 45.2 percent from three and 80.0 percent from the free throw line. The guard rotation is completed by David Cournooh (5.9 points per game), dangerous as a shooter (38.7 percent from three) and a defensive-oriented player. The other small forward is Jason Burnell (8.7 points and 4.4 rebounds on average), a wing who can play in the low post, and can see time at both forwards positions. He shoots 58.8 percent on twos and is also a dangerous offensive rebounder. He was on the Dinamo Sassari team that played the 2022 semifinal against Olimpia along Bilan. The other big men are Nicola Akele (5.2 points and 3.1 rebounds per game) and Michael Cobbins, a pure inside presence (4.4 points per game, 68.1 percent from two), who is also an excellent rebounder (3.5 over 15 minutes on the court).

GAME NOTES – In Game 4 against Trento, Nicolò Melli produced his third double double of the season. In all these games Olimpia came out on top (14+10 in Tortona; 19+12 against Napoli; 13+10 in Trento). Olimpia is also undefeated in games in which Melli has grabbed at least 10 rebounds (5-0) regardless of the points scored. Shavon Shields averaging 37.0 per game has the playoffs’ highest personal rating, as well as being the leading scorer averaging 27.5 points per game. Melli is also the second rebounder of the playoffs (7.0 per game, of which 5.3 are defensive). Kyle Hines enters into the semifinals 113-for-169 on twos for his playoffs’ career. He is 2nd all-time behind Rasho Nesterovic’s 71.7 percent and before Joseph Blair’s 65.8 percent. Hines is shooting 66.9 percent for his career. Finally, Shabazz Napier with 4.8 has the fourth highest assist average of the post-season.