Olimpia responded and bounced back very strong in Varese’s Italian league game, last Sunday, to the defeat with Panathinaikos, suffered in the last EuroLeague game. The schedule now becomes brutal with four consecutive road games and in between the game against Brindisi, the second-best team in Italy according to the standing. It starts in Moscow, against a Khimki team, who badly needs a win to get back in the playoffs’ hunt and can attempt a comeback with a virtually complete roster. Olimpia had it in the game won against Alba Berlin, but then there was the injury suffered by Sergio Rodriguez. Olimpia practiced at the Mediolanum Forum in the morning and then flew to Russia.
THE REFEREES – Dani Hierrezuelo (Spain), Medi Difallah (France), Tomislav Hordov (Croatia).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We face a Khimki team very talented offensively and athletic. For us, it’s gonna be crucial to play a very careful game defensively and rebound the ball effectively, in order to have the chance to win a game against a team who is much better than its record indicates.”
VLADO MICOV – “Road games are always difficult in the EuroLeague especially when you face a team like Khimki needing of a win, with a lot of experience and talent. Their complete roster is worth much more than what the current standings say, so we know it will be a very difficult game in which we will try to make up for the defeat suffered with Panathinaikos.”
KHIMKI – It lost the first five games of this EuroLeague season when Khimki had a roster heavily affected by absences including that of the team’s superstar, Alexey Shved. When it gradually recovered much of its players, Khimki won three games before stumbling into another three-game losing streak, but the last one in Munich happened in the last couple of possessions at the end of a game led for most of the time. In fact, in Munich, Khimki had the full roster available with the return of Stefan Jovic and the one after six games out of Devin Booker. Shved is the team’s top scorer with 17.3 points per game, with about seven threes attempted per game and an average of 8.9 assists per game, a pace almost unsustainable. Impressive are the big men too: Jonas Jerebko (11.6 points, 6.1 rebounds per game, 40.1 percent from three), Jordan Mickey (10.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game) who returned to Khimki after one season spent at Real Madrid, Devin Booker (15.0 points and 7.5 rebounds) and finally Greg Monroe, who came from Bayern Munich and is averaging 11.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Monroe and Jerebko combined for 1.267 NBA appearances. Apart from Shved, on the perimeters there are point guard Jovic, the shooting guard Dairis Bertans, Russian guards Zaitsev and Vialtsev plus Errick McCollum, now a veteran of the European leagues. The small forward is Jannis Timma, then there is also Sergey Karassev and the veteran Sergey Monia.
THE KHIMKI CONNECTION – Dairis Bertans played the entire 2017/18 season in Milan, winning the Italian league, and part of the 2018/19 season. Bertans has also won the Super Cup twice in Milan, which he left to go to the NBA, in New Orleans. In the EuroLeague he scored the Barcelona winning basket in 2018. Jonas Jerebko played in Italy, in Biella, a semi-final championship serie against Olimpia in 2009 (Milan won 3-1). 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.
NOTES – Gigi Datome has an open streak of 21 free throws made. Kevin Punter has scored a three in each of his last 17 EuroLeague games and has an open streak of 14 double-digit games. Kyle Hines is within six two-pointers of 1,000 for his career.
