With eight games left to play and the transfer market closed, the most-closed EuroLeague playoff race ever, is definitely on. The game on Wednesday 3 March at the Mediolanum Forum against Fenerbahce will have playoff consequences for both teams. Olimpia is third in the standing with 17 wins, Fenerbahce has 15 wins and is currently the last team in the playoff zone, with just a one-win lead over Zalgiris and Valencia. The game is obviously crucial for the two teams. Olimpia and Fenerbahce are going to play two straight road games after it. Olimpia will go to Kaunas and then to Moscow to face CSKA. Milan also won the first leg 79-71, so it has the chance to build a solid advantage over Fenerbahce. But Fenerbahce, who at one point lost seven out of eight games, subsequently won 10 in a row, the second-best of the season behind CSKA Moscow 12-game win streak. The streak was broken by Efes last week. In addition to the team improvement and the recovery of some injured players, Fenerbahce also added Marko Guduric after two years spent in the NBA in Memphis, another former NBA center, Kyle O’Quinn, and point-guard Alex Perez.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We face one of the hottest team in the EuroLeague: Fenerbahce before losing to Efes had a long streak of games won. They are a physical and very deep team, since the early part of the season they recovered the injured players and added a top guy like Marko Guduric. On top of that, they still have two extremely experienced players like De Colo and Vesely. We still have to deal with some important injuries, but we’re prepared and I’m sure that my players will play with a high level of attention.”

KYLE HINES – “We face a big challenge, because Fenerbahce has been one of the best teams over the last couple of months. So it’s going to be a tough challenge. We need to play hard and try, over the last stretch of the EuroLeague season, to win as many games as possible, home and away, in order to secure a high spot in the standing.”

REFEREES – Sasa Pukl (Slovenia), Carlos Cortes (Spain), Joseph Bissang (France).

NOTES – Gigi Datome is third behind Kyle Kuric (Barcelona) and William Howard (Asvel) in three-point shooting, at 56.9 percent. Zach LeDay is fifth at 50.0 percent. Shavon Shields is sixth at 48.3 percent. He has an open streak of 15 games with at least one made three. Kyle Hines enters this game with 248 shots blocked for his career, one less than Fran Vazquez, who is sitting second place. Vlado Micov last week became the second player in Olimpia history to play 100 EuroLeague games after Kaleb Tarczewski did it earlier in the season. Sergio Rodriguez has surpassed 3,000 career points during the Milan game against Maccabi. He was the eighth ever to reach that feat, but he is now seventh in the all-time ranking, after surpassing Felipe Reyes. Malcolm Delaney has made at least one three in 20 of his last 21 games and jus became the 35th player to have at least 500 EuroLeague assists. Olimpia won last week its 17th EuroLeague game against Khimki, a new club-record. The previous one dated back to the 2013/14 season, with a different format, when Olimpia won 5 games in the regular season, 10 in the Top 16 and one in the playoffs, reaching 16 wins for the entire season. Olimpia is first in the three-point shooting at 42.08 percent and is first for fewest turnovers, averaging 10.8 per game. Olimpia as a team is also third in the points scored, with an average of 81.6 per game.

THE DOUBLE ROUND – Between those originally set by the schedule and those “created” by make-up games, Olimpia is preparing to play two weekly EuroLeague games for the ninth time. In the previous eight double weeks, Olimpia is 11-5 in single game, going 6-2 at home, 5-3 away, 5-3 in Game 1 and 6-2 in Game 2.

 

FENERBAHCE – It is one of the most dominant teams of the last 10 or so years of European basketball, with one title won and five consecutive Final Four berths achieved. This year, it replaced the coach of those successes, Zeljko Obradovic, with Igor Kokoskov, a Serbian who won the European championship with Slovenia and was the first European coach to be also an NBA team head coach (Phoenix). Although some historic players left in the summer, such as Kostas Sloukas and Gigi Datome, several key elements remained, such as Nando De Colo (14.9 points and 4.1 assists per game) and Jan Vesely (who is averaging 13.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game). Marko Guduric (11.5 points, 43.1 percent from three) is another member of the EuroLeague title winning team, as is Melih Mahmutoglu (who should be out), center Ahmet Duverioglu (4.0 points, 75.0 percent from two) and of course the veteran Ali Muhammed (6.2 points, 46.0 percent from three). The list of the many new players include point-man Lorenzo Brown (10.0 points, 3.9 assists per games), small forwards Edgaras Ulanovas (4.8 points, 42.1 percent from three), the only one who has started all 26 games, and Dyshawn Pierre (8.7 points per game, 42.3 percent from three), German center Danilo Barthel (7.4 points, 41.7 percent from three), the shooter Jarell Eddie (46.6 percent from three) and Kyle O’Quinn, who has 472 NBA appearances in his resume. Fenerbahce is one of five teams shooting better than 40 percent from three-point range.

HISTORY VS. FENERBAHCE – In the previous 19 games, Fenerbahce leads the all-time series 12-7. Fenerbahce at one point won ten consecutive games between the two teams, before losing last season in Milan 87-74. In that game, Sergio Rodriguez scored 22 points. This year, Olimpia won again in Istanbul 79-71 with 15 points from Zach LeDay and 13 from Kevin Punter.

THE FENERBAHCE CONNECTION – Gigi Datome played for Fenerbahce for five seasons with four EuroLeague Final Four appearances and the EuroLeague title won in 2017. Datome played 149 EuroLeague games in the yellow and blue, scoring 1,538 points. He has also won the Turkish title three times and the Turkish Cup three times. In 2016, he was the MVP of the Turkish championship series. Sergio Rodriguez, Kyle Hines and Nando De Colo won the 2019 EuroLeague title with CSKA Moscow. Hines won two more titles with Olympiacos along Kostas Sloukas: Christos Stavropoulos was that team’s general manager. Fenerbahce general manager Maurizio Gherardini worked with Ettore Messina in Treviso. Lorenzo Brown and Kevin Punter played together in Belgrade last season; Zach LeDay played alongside Edgaras Ulanovas in Kaunas.

WHAT’S AHEAD – Olimpia, after Fenerbahce, will face Zalgiris in Kaunas, CSKA in Moscow, Barcelona at home, then the team will have three straight road games in Vitoria, Belgrade, and Athens-Panathinaikos, before closing the regular season at home with Efes.

THE OUTLOOK – In the head-to-head games already completed, Olimpia is 2-0 Vs Real Madrid; 2-0 Vs Bayern Munich; 1-1 (-3) Vs Zenit St. Petersburg; 1-1 (=) Vs Valencia.

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