Olimpia is returning on the road to begin another tough week, with two EuroLeague games (the second will be against Virtus Bologna, at the Unipol Forum). In truth, the schedule overlaps: tomorrow’s game in Monaco will be the third in five days, following the one in Istanbul and the Italian league game won against Dinamo Sassari. Olimpia comes to Monaco aware of its standings position: from a postseason perspective, this is a game they must win, if possible, by more than three points. At the same time, there’s no point in making too many calculations. Olimpia needs to take one game at a time. This one is certainly challenging: Monaco started the season strong, then suffered a slump due to the departure of some players and a series of injuries. This period then culminated in head coach Vassilis Spanoulis’ departure. But now the team has stepped up its game: they won a battle with Olympiacos at home and then came from behind to win in Istanbul against Efes. It’s not a very deep team, but the available players are all high-quality and experienced, aggressive, and compact. Olimpia is coming off a courageous game against Fenerbahce in Istanbul, both in terms of their quality in the first half and the courage showed in the fourth quarter, in producing a comeback that forced the league leaders to play until the end. Yesterday, Shavon Shields was absent due to load management, but he will be available again in Monaco.
NOTES – AS Monaco- Olimpia Milano will be played on March 24, at 19:00 in Monte Carlo.
THE REFEREES – Carlos Peruga (Spain), Olegs Latisevs (Latvia), Steve Bittner (Germany).
COACH PEPPE POETA – “Monaco came together during some hard times as they showed by winning the last two games. They have very athletic wings, talented guards like Okobo and Strazel, very experinced big men. We know how important this game is. The key aspect of it will be to control the tempo and keep them to go off with their transition game.”
AS MONACO OUTLOOK – Compared to the Milan game, Monaco replaced its coach, Vassilis Spanoulis, with his former assistant Manuchar Markoishvili. Some injuries have depleted the team lately. Mike James, the most potent scorer of the last decade, the EuroLeague’s all-time leading scorer, has been out, and so is Nikola Mirotic, one of the best power forwards in the competition. Looking at the best scorers, Elie Okobo is available. He is an isolation scorer who is a member of the French National Team, who spent the early part of his career in the U.S. but now he is in his fifth EuroLeague campaign. The roster depth, on the perimeter, is secured by Matthew Strazel, another National Team player, fast and aggressive, who made the winning basket against Olympiacos, and by Nemanja Nedovic, a talented and experienced player. Terry Tarpey and Juhann Begharin are excellent french players capable to round out the rotation. The small forwards are supposed to be Alpha Diallo and Jaron Blossomgame, both capable to play both forward positions, especially the American. Diallo is an American schooled player (Providence), a classic two-way athlete who can defend hard and shoot from long-range (37.4 percent three-point shooter for his career). He has size and physicality to be a factor inside with his rebounding. Blossomgame is a very physical player, known for his defensive toughness, a pillar in Monaco since 2022. He is not a natural born scorer, but he can rebound with the best of them. The starting center is Dan Theis, a German player who had a lot of success with his National Team and also in the NBA for a while. He is hard to deal with because he can shoot from the outside too. His back-up is Kevarrius Hayes, a EuroLeague veteran who can complete Theis for his verticality and athleticism.
LA MONACO CONNECTION – Mike James spent one year in Milan in the 2018/19 season, winning the EuroLeague scoring title. That season, he played 30 games, scored 595 points and dished 191 assists. Nemanja Nedovic spent two years in Milan, scoring 307 points out of 32 appearances. Finally, Nikola Mirotic played 51 EuroLeague games for Olimpia, scoring 886 points. James and Mirotic should be out for this game because of injuries.
GAME NOTES – Zach LeDay is thee points shy of being the third-best ever EuroLeague scorer with Olimpia. The list is led by Shavon Shields ahead of Bob McAdoo (1.292) and Vlado Micov (1.232). LeDay has now 1.229 points. He is the EuroLeague sixth-best three-point shooter, with 47.1 percent. The next rebound will be the 1.000the of his career. Josh Nebo, 72.3 percent, is sixth in two-point shooting for the season. Armoni Brooks has made 87 three-pointers, second overall, two threes less than Andreas Obst, from Bayern. he has a 23-game streak with at least one three-pointer made.
