The 340th playoff game played by Olimpia was a bitter one. The defeat against Trento in Game 1 forces the team to play catch-up in the series and Game 2 is close to be a must-win game. Furthermore, Sunday’s defeat was the first at home in the playoffs after 17 wins in a row. The team practiced yesterday at the Oakley Training Center at the Forum with the aim of improving the performance provided in Game 1 both defensively and offensively. Trento shot better both on twos (65.6 percent versus 51.9) and on threes (11 to seven). Olimpia, taking advantage of Shields’ ability to penetrate and Mirotic’s craft in the low post, generated many fouls which it then capitalized with its 27/31 shooting from the line which, however, was not enough to guarantee the win. Compared to Game 1, Billy Baron will not be available as he suffered a slight strain in his right calf in his return game, an injury which will be re-evaluated in the next few days. Tip-off time will be at 20:00 in Unipol Forum.

GAME 1 – After a promising first quarter with 32 points scored, Olimpia lost its sharpness not only on offense, suffering the verticality of Derek Cooke, author of 21 points. After building a 13-point lead, Olimpia fell behind by seven in the third quarter. At that point it came back, took the leade but was unable to express the necessary consistency to take away. In the final couple of minutes, free throws made by Nikola Mirotic (8/8) and Shavon Shields (27 points, 7/8 from two, 8/10 from the line) brought Olimpia ahead before the final shot with which Kamar Baldwin won the game for Trento, 85-84.

GAME NOTES – Olimpia is now 202-138 in playoff games all-time. In the best-of-five quarterfinals, the team’s record in Game 1 is now 14-8. When it lost Game 1, Olimpia still won the series four times out of seven, including all the last four times in which this happened: in 2008 (Montegranaro), in 2011 (Sassari), in 2017 (Capo d ‘Orlando) and in 2019 (Avellino). In these last three circumstances the game 1 defeat had come at home. In Game 2, Nicolò Melli will join Dino Meneghin in second place for playoff appearances with Olimpia (72). However, Melli has not played in one of these games, so he is still one game below in terms of games actually played.