It looks like a destiny night. Kyle Hines became the all-time EuroLeague leading offensive rebounder, reaching 706 for his career, one more than the legendary Felipe Reyes, and Olimpia won in Kaunas 74-70 because an offensive rebounding dominating night. Olimpia grabbed 14 offensive rebounds against three and with the addition of 12 three-pointers pushed away a proud Zalgiris team that never gave up. It’s been a close game for most of the night, Olimpia tried to get away several times and Zalgiris with Lukas Lekavicius’ quickness and Edgars Ulanovas low-post game, plus Joffrey Lauvergne offensive skills stayed close, went up on many junctures, but in the end when the game was up for grabs, it was Olimpia that made the right plays at the offensive end of the court and closed the door defensively.

After Malcolm Delaney huge three and two crucial free throws made by Sergio Rodriguez, Devon Hall stripped the ball, Kyle Hines had a steal, and the game was won. Hines had 11 points and 10 rebounds, five of them offensive; Nicolò Melli added 10 boards himself, again five of them in the Zalgiris lane. Delaney was offering his best self-impersonation; he looked a lot like last season’s Playoff Delaney. He had a season-high 20 points, made four threes. During the current Olimpia winning streak on the road, now at five, has scored 70 points, three times had four three-point shots made and was decisive in the closing possessions again, just like in Barcelona and Belgrade. Sergio Rodriguez gave him some help, dishing five assists to go along his 10 points, while Troy Daniels was on fire early coming off the bench. In 14 minutes of action, he scored 15 points including a huge four-point play in the second half.

“Zalgiris played I think a good game trying to take advantage of their mismatches – Ettore Messina said – Coach Zdovc organized very well their offense. They tried to post Ulanovas a lot that for us was a tough matchup because if we go bigger, now we have less offense. If we go smaller to have more offense, we pay underneath. I think we managed to arrange that to stay in single coverage and without giving up threes in rotation. And my veterans made some big plays down the stretch. Malcolm [Delaney] hit some big shots, we got some good one-on-one situations by our veterans, and we managed to come out with the win.”