Olimpia superb effort in spite of being badly shorthanded came up just a little bit short. Don’t look at the 77-65 final score because it is a big lie. Olimpia was capable to comeback from 14 points down in the second period, closed the gap to seven at the half and with another incredible effort, its defense and rebounding in the middle of the fourth quarter took a two-point lead that looked very promising. Unfortunately, Olimpia couldn’t finish a great job. The offense sputtered in the closing possessions while Shane Larkin and Vasilije Micic finished the game on fire. Efes now leads the best-of-five series 2-1.

“We didn’t play smart basketball during the last three minutes just like my colleague Ataman said Efes did in Game 2. We came back with a monumental effort, took a lead but we couldn’t finish. The shooting percentages killed us even when we built a lot of open shots. In the end Larkin and Micic won the game the game for them. Great offense is going to beat great defense. When it is the other way around there’s always a cooperation from the offensive talent,” Coach Ettore Messina said.

Sergio Rodriguez played a terrific game on a badly sprained ankle. He stayed on the court for 27 minutes. “Obviously he wasn’t the Chacho we had in Game 2, but he helped us a lot. He was a touching game from his part. Hopefully his ankle will not get worse and he will be able to try again on Thursday. We gave Datome a chance too, but he wasn’t ready,” Messina added. Devon Hall paced Milano with 16 points and Jerian Grant added a personal-best 11 points.