Olimpia needs to put its painful Berlin defeat in the past and focus on the task ahead, the historical game against Pesaro, a team met three times in the Italian league championship series, ten time in the Italian Cup championship game, ten times in playoffs’ series, the last one just a few months ago. Olimpia is 3-1 in the Italian league and need to stay the course, before a two-game road stint (Sassari and Scafati). At the same time, a big week is coming up with two straight EuroLeague home games, against Maccabi and AS Monaco. Pesaro is coming off a painful overtime loss to Scafati at home. The team just added center Egidijus Mockevicius, but he is still not eligible to play in Milan.

Pesaro’s team has been built around three guards, the experienced Ray McCallum, Scott Bamforth, who is shooting the lights out from three-point territory, and Matteo Tambone, one of the most prolific scorers off the bench. Trevor Bluiett, the small forward, is another dangerous shooter, as Riccardo Visconti is, off the bench. Leonardo Totè as the starting center has been huge so far, offensively and as a rebounder. He is averaging 16.3 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. On top of it, he is going a lot to the line 7.0 attempts per game, while converting at a very high clips, close to 90 percent. “They have a competitive starting line-up and Totè is having the best season of his life, while Tambone and Mazzola are very useful off the bench, bringing experience to the team,” Coach Mario Fioretti said.

Olimpia will need to play a solid game. So far, in the Italian league Alex Poythress (78.3 percent from two) and Stefano Tonut (14-for-19 from two-point range) has been instrumental in the wins. Pesaro’s Head Coach, Maurizio Buscaglia has coached both Shavon Shields and Diego Flaccadori during Trento glory years with two straight trips to the Italian league finals, in 2017 and 2018.