Olimpia finishes off its double-round EuroLeague week in Barcelona against one of the heavyweight of the competition. FC Barcelona is leading the league in Spain too, had an amazing summer in terms of signings and lately recovered Thomas Huertel, the fifth-best passer in the EuroLeague history, one spot behind Sergio Rodriguez, who began the season stuck in the injured list.
OLIMPIA – After losing at home with Alba Berlin, Olimpia practiced for two days and left for Barcelona. Andrea Cinciarini, Paul Biligha and Riccardo Moraschini are staying behind to complete their recovery, while Jeff Brooks returned to be part of the team after missing five consecutive games due do an injury. The last time Olimpia won in Barcelona was two years ago on a Dairis Bertans mid-range jumper with five seconds left.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We play on the road against one of the best teams in the EuroLeague, maybe the best and most likely candidate to win it all. We will play with determination and humility, well aware that controlling the tempo and the rebounds will be the crucial factor, against a team who attack the offensive board with great aggrssiveness, to try to stay close and be competitive at the end”.
THE REFEREES – Ilija Belosevic (Serbia), Mehdi Difallah (France), Gytis Vilius (Lithuania)
THE LAST TIME WE MET… – Olimpia won 83-70 because of a dominating 31-12 fourth quarter. Barcelona led by as many as nine points in the first half, but was still up by seven at halftime and by six entering the fourth. Sergio Rodriguez scored nine of his team-high 17 points in the last 2:15. Vlado Micov had 16 and eight rebounds, Luis Scola 14 and nine boards.
THE OPPONENT – FC Barcelona is a riding a four-game winning streak and sits in second place along Real Madrid and behind Efes Istanbul. It lost twice at home, with CSKA Moscow and Efes. Nikola Mirotic, who came back to Europe after six years in the NBA, is the team leading scorer (18.8), the best rebounder (7.0), the one with the highest index rating and a MVP candidate. The second best scorer is Cory Higgins, the incumbent Final Four’s MVP with CSKA, but he didn’t play the last two games with injuries. In the last two outings, Barcelona has Thomas Heurtel back at the point, along Malcolm Delaney. FC Barcelona is shooting 39.0% from three-point range, led by Victor Claver (48.1%), the guard Kyle Kuric (46.8%) and Alex Abrines (45.1%), who returned to Barcelona after three years spent in the NBA, in Oklahoma City. But Barcelona’s roster has quality, depth and no weaknesses. The Hungarian Adam Hanga for some months was featured at the point.guard, is one of the best defensive players in Europe and a 61% shooter inside the arc. Brandon Davies, coming from Kaunas, was an All-EuroLeague first team player last season. Ante Tomic is a EuroLeague iconic center, the competition all-time ninth-best scorer, the fourth rebounder and first for two-point field goals made. Pau Ribas and Pierre Oriola are World Champions with the National Team.
THE FC BARCELONA CONNECTION – Vlado Micov was a teammate of Pau Ribas in Vitoria; while Nemanja Nedovic and Ribas played together in Valencia. Svetislav Pesic coached Nedovic on the Red Star team. Last season, Cory Higgins and Sergio Rodriguez won the EuroLeague last season at CSKA Moscow. They played together for two seasons. Nikola Mitoric and Ante Tomic were teammates of Sergio Rodriguez at Real Madrid too. In 2010/11 they were all coached by Ettore Messina.
MICOV AT 300! – Vlado Micov, after making four threes against Alba, surpassed 300 three-point shots made in his EuroLeague career. Now he’s the 18th all-time, three threes shy of Antonis Fotsis, who also played for Olimpia.
MICOV AT 1000! – Micov is 21 points shy of 1.000 scored while playing for Olimpia in the Euroleague. He’s already the team all-time leading scorer in the competition.
RODRIGUEZ IS GETTING ON TOP – Sergio Rodriguez, who surpassed Gianluca Basile and is now 6th all-time for three-point shots made in his EuroLeague career, and is fourth all-time for assists, is 19 points shy of Marcis Brown’s 2739 points and his 10th place all-time on the scoring list.
TARCZEWSKI – Kaleb Tarczewski has climbed over the 500 points and 400 rebounds thresholds for his EuroLeague career. Now, he’s also the team’s all-time best rebounder with 414.
GUDAITIS – Arturas Gudaitis is close to two milestones. He’s one rebound shy of 400 during his Olimpia’s EuroLeague career and is three rebounds shy of 500 for his entire career.
