The EuroLeague break has ended and Olimpia takes the court at the Mediolanum Forum (where it has a 9-3 record so far) against Khimki, a team following Olimpia by one win in the standings. In fact, it is a crucial game on the way to the playoffs, the first of many in a sprint that involves at least nine if not ten teams. Khimki has lost three of their last four games and seven of their last nine, but it had a lot of injury problems to overcome. In the last VTB league round, in Astana, Khimki didn’t have Shved, Timma, Gill and Evans. But the Russian scorer (21.3 points per game) eventually scored 42 points in the VTB League All-Star Game and is fully recovered. Anthony Gill has been out in the last few games due to a fractured nose, Janis Timma has had adductor troubles, Sergei Karassev suffered a bruised hand, but they could all be available. In addition, at the center sport will make its debut Thomas Robinson, 8.2 points and 5.9 rebounds on average two years ago at Khimki, a player with 322 NBA appearances in his career. Khimki is fourth for points scored, 17th for points allowed, a clear sign that Olimpia will face a team who likes to play at a high pace.
OLIMPIA – Nemanja Nedovic (right abductor) and Christian Burns (left knee inflammation) won’t be available. Drew Crawford returns after staying out from the Italy Cup. He’s averaging 6.7 points per game in about 21 minutes during his first EuroLeague season.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It’s a complicated game for us, because we come off the Italy Cup elimination that still hurts, but we cannot feel sorry for ourselves. The mental aspect will be crucial, we need to be aggressive right from the start. We face a team with enormous offensive potential, so our defense is going to be important, the balance and the way we will attack them inside.”
THE LAST TIME WE MET… – With a great first half, Olimpia went nine points ahead, 33-24, and was up by four at half-time. Then in the second half Alexey Shved (24 points) took over leading a 16-0 run that overturned the game. Jonas Jerebko was decisive, too, scoring 19 points with 8/10 from the field. Olimpia tried to take it back in the end, but lost 87-79. Luis Scola scored 16 points, Michael Roll 14, Sergio Rodriguez had 13 with five assists.
THE OPPONENT – Khimki is in first in the VTB League with a 17-1 record and a three-game lead over CSKA Moscow. It is an offensive team with Alexey Shved who scores 21.3 points, dishes 6.0 assists and attempts almost ten threes per game. The second-best scorer is Janis Timma, a small forward who’s averaging 12.6 points per game. Devin Booker, a center coming from Bayern, averages 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game and is shooting an impressive 51.6% from three-point range. Shved often teams up with Stefan Jovic, a Serbian national team point guard, who’s averaging 3.9 assists per game and is converting 50.0% of its threes. The battery of big men relies not only on Booker: the power forward Anthony Gill is now an excellent shooter from the outside (45.7% from three), then there’s the explosive Jeremy Evans (probably out because of a back injury), Thomas Robinson (a number 5 pick in the 2012 NBA draft, from Kansas) and of course the Swedish Jonas Jerebko, who can also play on the perimeter, who appeared in 635 regular season and 48 playoff games in his NBA career. Coach Kurtinaitis in counting on a deep roster, that includes the point-man Chris Kramer, the veteran Sergei Monia, another former NBA player, Sergei Karassev, the sharpshooting guard Vyatcheslav Zaytsev, and of course the former Olimpia shooter, Dairis Bertans.
THE KHIMKI CONNECTION – Dairis Bertans played the entire 2017/18 season in Milan, winning the Italian championship, and part of the 2018/19 season. Bertans helped the team to win twice the Super Cup. He left during the season to go to the NBA in New Orleans. In the EuroLeague he made the winning basket in Barcelona in 2018. Jonas Jerebko played in Italy, in Biella, and faced Olimpia in the 2009 semifinal series that Milan won 3-1. Nemanja Nedovic won the Olympic silver medal in Rio 2016 with Stefan Jovic. It should be noted that Alexey Shved was coached by Ettore Messina at CSKA Moscow from 2006 to 2009 and together they won the EuroLeague in 2008.
VLADO MICOV FOR 1.000 – Vlado Micov is two threes shy of the 17th place ever in the EuroLeague which belongs to Antonis Fotsis. The Olimpia forward, however, is also 11 points shy of 1,000 in his career with Olimpia. Micov is the all-time Olimpia Euroleague leading scorer with 989 points.
RODRIGUEZ IN THE TOP 10 – Sergio Rodriguez has scored 2,734 points in his career and is five points away from Marcus Brown’s 2,739 and the All-time 10th place among the EuroLeague scorers. Rodriguez is fourth all-time in assists and sixth in three-point field goals made.
