One of the best teams of this first part of the season, Valencia, comes to the Mediolanum Forum carrying along an impressive pace, made up of five wins and only one loss, in Istanbul against Efes. On the road, Valencia has played just twice, winning in Kaunas. The pace in the Spanish league is pretty much similar, 6-2: Valencia lost its opener against Girona somewhat surprisingly then won six consecutive games before losing last Sunday in Badalona, ​​where the starting point guard, Chris Jones, however left due to injury after less than three minutes of play. Olimpia comes to this game after regaining some confidence in the two most recent games, the one with Monaco lost but hard fought and close for all the 40 minutes, and the one in Brindisi, made easier by the opponents’ absences but handled well especially at the defensive end of the floor. Olimpia will have to build from here against a confident, deep team with several veterans such as Stefan Jovic, the Serbian silver medalist at the World Cup, Victor Claver and of course Brandon Davies. After two consecutive home defeats in the EuroLeague, obviously regardless of the difficulties of the game, it would be important to get a win again approaching another “double” round next week, in Bologna and at home against Efes preceded by another trip in the Italian league, this time in Scafati. Tip off time is 20:30 on Thursday, November 9th.

REFEREES – Robert Lottermoser (Germany), Piotr Pastusiak (Poland), Noam Gordon (Israel)

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are facing a Valencia team perfroming at a very high level right now, taking advantage of their big men versatility and Chris Jones’ leadership. They usually defend with great physicality and aggressiveness, so moving the ball and use the one on one situation with determination will be crucial, along rebounds and transition defense, two areas where we need to improve”.

DEVON HALL – “Valencia is a team with a lot of enthusiasm, given their early success. They will come here a confident team. We are improving and need to play hard for the entire game at both ends of the floor and help each other to try to get the win.”

VALENCIA OUTLOOK – Valencia won five of the first six EuroLeague games, making good use of the schedule which offered them four home games, all of which they won. Coach Alex Mumbru, in his second season in Valencia, has Chris Jones (averaging 11.3 points and 4.7 assists) and Canadian Kassius Robertson (4.3 points per game) as his starting guards. Small forward Semi Ojeleye, a former Virtus Bologna player, who is the team’s leading scorer with 13.8 points per game, 6.0 rebounds and 61.5 percent three-point shooting is Valencia starting forward normally. Among the big men, Brandon Davies is averaging 10.8 points per game and 2.7 rebounds in a very extended rotation that includes Boubacar Toure (5.0 points and 3.5 rebounds on average); Damien Inglis (8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per game) and Nathan Reuvers (5.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game). At small forward, in addition to Ojeleye, there is the experienced Victor Claver (4.4 points and 4.2 rebounds per game, 85.7 percent from two, 42.9 percent from three-point range). In general, Valencia is a deep team. Among the small players, Jared Harper is an accelerator with 8.3 points per game in 14.1 minutes of average use; Stefan Jovic is a veteran world silver medalist with Serbia who is producing 4.8 points and 4.0 assists per contest; and Josip Puerto plays the two wing positions indifferently. Finally, Jaime Pradilla completes the big men rotation with 10.4 minutes of use in which he averages 3.8 points per game on 81.8 percent shooting on twos.

SERIES HISTORY – Olimpia has played against Valencia ten times in its history with a favorable record, 7-3. In the 2010/11 season Olimpia won in Valencia 80-69 with 26 points from Jonas Maciulis, 18 from Marjonas Petravicius and 17 from David Hawkins. In the return game, which however was played in Biella, Valencia took revenge by winning 75-60 with 20 points coming from Rafa Martinez. In 2017/18, Olimpia won 103-98 after two overtimes in Valencia, coming back from 17 points down in the third period, making 17 threes, a team record, in the process. In the return game, in Desio, Valencia won 93-89. On that game, Vlado Micov scored 27 points, a personal best in the EuroLeague. In 2019/20, Olimpia won in Milan 78-71 with 15 points scored by Amedeo Della Valle, 13 and 10 rebounds coming from Kaleb Tarczewski, 10 and eight assists from Sergio Rodriguez. In the return game, Olimpia won again, 83-81 in overtime, because of a buzzer beating three made by Vlado Micov (13 points and seven rebounds). Sergio Rodriguez scored 16 points with nine assists. In 2020/21 the two teams faced each other twice with one home win for each side. In Milan, Olimpia won 97-80 with 27 points scored by Gigi Datome. Last year Olimpia won both games, 90-70 at home and 88-84 in Valencia with 28 points by Shabazz Napier. Overall, Olimpia is 3-2 at home and 4-1 on the road against Valencia.

THE VALENCIA CONNECTION – Brandon Davies has played 33 EuroLeague games in Milan last year with 336 points scored and 107 rebounds grabbed.

KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines has played 116 EuroLeague games for Olimpia so far, the third-most game for any Olimpia player, behind Kaleb Tarczewski and Nicolò Melli. Besides, he is nine away from reaching 1,000 defensive rebounds for his career, a milestone surpassed by only seven players so far, Nicolò Melli included. Meanwhile, he became the All-Time first player for games played in the EuroLeague and with 397 is three appearances short from 400 in his career.

NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – Nicolò Melli is four appearances away from reaching Kaleb Tarczewski’s 156 as the All-Time leader for games played in the EuroLeague with Olimpia. Meanwhile, he has put Ante Tomic behind him as the sole holder of fifth place All-Time in the defensive rebounds list. The fourth place belongs to Georgios Printezis with 1,065, 36 rebounds ahead of the Olimpia captain.

SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – Shields surpassed 1,500 career points scored in Berlin. 993 have been scored for Olimpia, the 4th-best ever. The only three players who have scored more than 1,000 points in the top European competition are Bob McAdoo, Vlado Micov and Sergio Rodriguez. His 22 points against Maccabi are his 13th “Over 20” game in the EuroLeague. Seven were produced for Olimpia. The record is 34 (2020/21 against Bayern Munich); twice he scored 26 points (against Khimki in Moscow in 2020/21; against Olympiacos in Milan in 2021/22).

NIKOLA MIROTIC NOTES – Mirotic’s 38 rating in Istanbul was the third performance ever by an Olimpia player; Berlin’s 36 rating was the sixth highest ever. Mirotic’s career high of 39 dates back to the Round 14 of the 2021/22 season when he played for Barcelona against Real Madrid. In that game he also set his career-high for points scored with 31. He went very close to in Berlin where he scored 30.

NIKOLA MIROTIC NOTES 2 – The performance in Berlin was the 54th game of at least 30 points by an Olimpia player in the history of the first European club competition. The club record is 43 shared by Bob McAdoo and Paolo Vittori. In the EuroLeague era, it was the eighth game with at least 30 points scored by an Olimpia player. The overall record belongs to Samardo Samuels with 36. 

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