The Italian League championship series is about to begin, on Saturday. The best-of-seven series will start in Milan and stay there for Game 2. Game 3 and 4 will be played in Bologna. Olimpia faces its arch-rival Virtus Bologna, the team that finished third in the regular season, but during the playoffs picked up its level and got to the finals undefeated, just like Milan. It’s the third time these two historic clubs are competing against each other in a championship series, but the last one was played in 1984 and the first in 1979, a long time ago. The last time, they met in the playoffs was in 2015 and Olimpia won easily its quarterfinal series 3-0. Now, it’s a different scenario, because Virtus is definitely a contending team, one who was able to complete a perfect Eurocup regular season before losing the do-or-die home game against Unics Kazan. More than that, Virtus is featuring Milos Teodosic, one of the most decorated European point guards of the last decade or so, and Marco Belinelli, coming off a 13-year NBA career, let alone Stefan Markovic, another experienced playmaker with several EuroLeague seasons under his belt.
The two teams faced each other three times during the season. Olimpia won every single game, the first was in Bologna and by winning it Olimpia conquered also the Supercup championship. During the regular season, Milan won both games, the first one on the road was a defensive battle that Kevin Punter decided scoring 18 points, including the three that created a seven-point Olimpia lead in the last minute of the game. Kyle Hines grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds in that game. In Milan, the game was a lot more free-flowing and Olimpia won 94-84 led by a memorable Shavon Shields’ 35-point game. He made seven threes in the process.
It’s a very awaited for series, featuring a top-level guard competition between Sergio Rodriguez and Malcolm Delaney on one side, Milos Teodosic and Stefan Markovic on the other; two of the top Italian players ever, Gigi Datome and Marco Belinelli; a lot of physicality inside. Kevin Punter, Olimpia’s second-best playoff scorer used to play for Bologna; Riccardo Moraschini has been a Virtus player for many years early in his career; Teodosic used to play with Kyle Hines and Vlado Micov at CSKA Moscow, where he was coached by Ettore Messina for a couple of seasons. Belinelli was also coached by Messina in San Antonio and with the National Team. A lot of storylines are going on, here.
Olimpia will play its game number 88 of the season, an incredible number, never heard of in its history. Just to have an idea, Virtus will play its 65th game tomorrow. “We face a very good team – Coach Ettore Messina said – For us, it’s important to find the mental and physical resources necessary to play such a long series, after a long, grueling season. We have to take one game at a time, paying great attention to small details, because this is where the games will be decided, rebounds, free-throw shooting, defense. Small things.”
