Olimpia is coming home and will try to stay above 50% of wins in its last EuroLeague home game of 2019. Valencia is coming to Milan, and while Olimpia lost two consecutive away games during its tough seven-day road trip, tha Spanish team – after a slow start, five losses in a row – is improving and has won six of the last nine. Last Tuesday, Valencia convincingly defeated Kirolbet Vitoria at home. Olimpia returned from Madrid in the wee hours of Wednesday. The roster is not going to change, with Nemanja Nedovic as the only player missing because of an injury. Vlado Micov has set his new season best in Madrid, when he scored 22 points, five shy of his all-time best that he set against Valencia two years ago.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “In order to build our future in this competition, this game is very important. We want to build over the excellent first half played in Madrid and the win that we earned in Venezia and try to win this game. I have great respect since many years, since when he coached in Manresa, for Coach Ponsarnau. His Valencia team suffered several injuries, but it’s capable to play an excellent brand of basketball, around a versatile player like Dubljevic”.
VALENCIA – Valencia is a deep team, although Joan Sastre, Guillermo Vives and the veteran Fernando San Emeterio are supposed to be missing because of assorted injuries. Valencia is counting on Quino Colom as a point-guard, along Vanja Marinkovic, who was signed off Partizan Belgrade in the summer, the iconic Sam Van Rossom, a dangerous shooter in Valencia since 2013, the emerging Antonio Abalde – 16 points in the last round – and sharpshooting guard Jordan Loyd, a 45.5 percent three-point bomber who played in Toronto last season. Another iconic player is Bojan Dubljevic, who went to Valencia in 2012 and he’s still there. He scored 25 points last Tuesday against Valencia. Other relevant players are center Mike Tobey, the Australian Brock Motum, who is a EuroLeague veteran (Zalgiris Kaunas and Efes), Maurice Ndour, another former NBA player.
REFEREES – Boris Ryzhyk (Ukraine), Oleg Latisevs (Latvia), Milos Koljensic (Montenegro).
MISCELLANEA – Sergio Rodriguez is entering the game with 1.171 career assists, two shy of Thomas Heurtel’s All-time third place. In Madrid, he had his first single-digit game and for the first time this year he failed to connect on any three-pointers. Meanwhile Vlado Micov is now four threes shy of becoming the 18th All-Time surpassing David Blu.
