Olimpia played enough on offense to win the game in Dubai, but not on defense, where they allowed a lot in the 99-92 final score: 56 points in the first half, 99 at the end, never truly managing to control Dubai’s offense, even in the best moments, even when Olimpia came back from a 15-point deficit in the opening quarter to a one-point deficit by the end of the third. Milan had the chance to take the lead, which mentally would have been helpful, but it lacked the physical and mental toughness to do so. The defense struggled against Kabengele and Petrusev early, Dwayne Bacon was dominant in the second quarter (he had 20 points at the half), then in the second half, McKinley Wright IV’s speed proved fatal, as he got his teammates into a rhythm (he had nine assists), dictated the pace, and ultimately (he scored 19 points, went 9-for-10 from the line) prevented Olimpia from coming back in a game that featured 13 three-pointers against a defense that had chosen to eliminate Armoni Brooks, leaving more to the others. “We started the game flat, we gave them the chance to gain confidence, which is lethal facing a talented team. We managed to bounce back a couple of time, but our defense was not enough to win a EuroLeague game especially on the road,” Coach Peppe Poeta said. Five players scored in double figure and three more scored nine points: “This is evidence of how well we played offensively, we shared the ball, we played together and we scored a lot, but we lacked defense”, Poeta added. Josh Nebo had 15 points including two three-point play, Marko Guduric had 11 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, Zach LeDay added 12 points and six rebounds.