A crowd of 20.000 people will fill the Stark Arena Thursday night (Partizan attendance average is 19.714) and are waiting for Olimpia in its second road EuroLeague game over a three-day span. They won’t be a surprise, since the team played just two weeks ago in the same arena against Red Star, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact. They will. Partizan, like Olimpia, is coming off a tough night because it had to play an overtime against Monaco, after a final stretch that was similar to the one Olimpia had to endure in Munich. Monaco forced the overtime with a three-pointer made by Mike James. The difference is in the morale: Partizan was able to win its overtime, Olimpia lost a tough one. Entering the sixth consecutive game on the road, Olimpia faces this game with the planned absences of Billy Baron and Nikola Mirotic, while Partizan last Tuesday was without its starting center, Frank Kaminsky, although he has been sustained over the last five game by the Brazilian Bruno Caboclo. Obviously, a lot of storylines are surrounding this game: Partizan has three Olimpia former players in its roster and two of them (Kevin Punter and James Nunnally) were absolutely spectacular against Monaco; on the sidelines there are 674 EuroLeague games won by the two winningest European coaches, facing each other for 28th time in their career. The first one was 31 years ago when Zeljko Obradovic was the Partizan rookie coach. Olimpia is taking to Belgrade a red-hot Shavon Shields, who averaged 21.0 points per game over the last four games, 26 points scored in Munich, with five threes.
THE REFEREES – Sreten Radovic (Croatia), Carlos Cortes (Spain), Mario Majkic (Croatia).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are going to face the second-best EuroLeague offense, a team with a lot of talent among the perimeter players that plays with a lot of emotion in front of the home crowd. For us, it will be crucial, on top of playing with physicality and aggressiveness, to pay attention to the transition defense and to play the entire 40 minutes with no let-downs in terms of intensity and focus.”
PARTIZAN BELGRADE OUTLOOK – A very offensively gifted team (87.5 points per game), coached for the third straight season by Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan is relying among the perimeter players on Ognjen Jamaraz (3.1 points per game. 58.8 percent on twos), the talented and full of energy Aleksa Avramovic (9.5 points per game. 63.0 percent on twos), a Serbian international, and the scorer Kevin Punter, who just returned from an injury and is averaging 14.3 points per game but was available for only seven games. However, he had 25 points against Monaco, last night. The American PJ Dozer is another gifted guard in his EuroLeague debut season, who is producing 9.3 points and 3.2 assists per game and shooting 63.6 percent from two. The starting small forward is James Nunnally, a great perimeter scorer, who is having high efficiency number: 12.7 points per game, 60.8 percent on twos, 50.0 percent on threes, 91.7 percent from the line. At the position, Obradovic can count also on Mateusz Ponitka, another EuroLeague veteran. The starting power forward is Zach LeDay, who is a now a true three-point threat, converting 38.1 percent of his attempts. LeDay is also averaging 11.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. The two centers are the former NBA first-round pick, Frank Kaminsky (9.5 points per game), who is also a dangerous perimeter shooter (42.1 percent) but was not available last Tuesday because of an injury, and the athletic Brazilian Bruno Cabloclo, 11.8 points per game after five appearances. Off the bench, Partizan is also using the shooter Danilo Andijusic (6.3 points per game, 38.5 percent from three) along Koprivica and Smailagic (9.3 points per game, 67.4 percent on twos).
HISTORY VS PARTIZAN – The first game dates back to the 1987/88 season, the year of the third Champions Cup triumph for Milan. Olimpia won 93-83 in Milan with 34 points by Bob McAdoo who erased the 34-point losing effort by Goran Grbovic. In the return game at Pionir, Partizan won 92-85 with another 26 points by Grbovic, while McAdoo scored 31. In 1991/92, Partizan defeated Olimpia twice during the regular season, 86-70 in Belgrade (31 by Danilovic) and 94-89 in Milan (23 by Djordjevic, 21 by Danilovic; 29 points were scored by Antonello Riva). In the semifinal game, in Belgrade, Partizan won 82-75 with 22 points scored by Danilovic and 21 by Djordjevic, while Milan had 21 points by Darryl Dawkins and 19 came from Johnny Rogers. In 2008, Partizan won 87-76 at home, but Olimpia replied with a 73-59 win in Italy. In 2011, the Serbs won at the Mediolanum Forum, coming back from 14 points behind at the end of the third period (Milan Macvan scored 18 points; Danilo Gallinari scored 14 points for Olimpia). In the second leg, a sort of tie-break game to clinch a berth to the Top 16, Olimpia prevailed 72-66. Omar Cook had 17 points and six assists; Malik Hairston added 18. Olimpia won both games during the last season, in Belgrade 80-75 with 25 points scored by Shavon Shields, 86-62 in Milan. Overall, Partizan is leading the all-time series 6-5, it is 3-2 Partizan in Belgrade, 3-2 for Olimpia in Milan, 1-0 Partizan on a neutral court.
THE PARTIZAN CONNECTION – James Nunnally played in Milan during the 2018/19 season scoring 14.1 points per game over 10 EuroLeague games. Kevin Punter and Zach LeDay played for Olimpia the 2020/21 season, and both contributed to clinch the 2021 Final Four berth. Punter scored 515 points over 36 appearances in the EuroLeague. LeDay had scored 360 points in 36 games including the winning basket against Bayern in Game 1 of the playoffs. Punter and LeDay have won a Super Cup and an Italian Cup in Milan.
KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines is also three total rebounds shy of the second place all-time that currently belongs to Felipe Reyes (1.799), behind the leader Paulius Jankunas (2.010). Hines is already the best offensive rebounder in EuroLeague history.
NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES –Nicolò Melli has just passed Kaleb Tarczewski’s 156 games played as the All-Time leader for Olimpia in the EuroLeague. Now he has 158. Meanwhile, he has put Ante Tomic behind him as the sole holder of fifth place All-Time in the defensive rebounds list. The fourth place belongs to Georgios Printezis with 1,065, eight rebounds ahead of the Olimpia captain.
SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – Over the last five games, Shavon Shields has scored 105 points (21.0 on average), 16-for-24 from two, 20-for-37 from three. Shields has career averages of 11.7 points and 12.0 index rating per game. This season: 17.2 points and 17.2 points index rating per game. He is shooting a career-high 46.2 percent from three.
