Three consecutive road games and then the last regular season appearance at home with Efes. Olimpia is hunting for its first playoff berth since 2014 during a week that will be spent far from Milan. The trip begins in Vitoria (Friday, March 26, 19:00 pm), a team capable to win seven of its last eight games, and because of that streak is back in the running for a playoff spot. During the last round of the Spanish league, Baskonia lost its center Tonye Jekiri to an injury, but the team is still very powerful in the paint: it is second in total rebounds, second in offensive rebounds, third in defensive rebounds, with the crucial presence of Youssoupha Fall, a 2.20 center who also shoots over 64 percent from the field. In addition, Baskonia is leading the EuroLeague in steals. Olimpia will have to play again without its point-guard Malcolm Delaney and on top of that Jeremy Evans became a last-minute scratch for another injury.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are obviously entering a crucial part of our season. During this EuroLeague three-game road trip, we’ll face three teams that were able to defeat us in Milan. So we’ll need to be sharp, to play with cohesiveness and stay humble in order to come back home with a playoff spot secured. Vitoria is an excellent team, in good shape, and very disciplined, as typical of all of its coach teams. Clearly, we are aware of how difficult this game is going to be.”
MICHAEL ROLL – “We have to focus on our transition defense, since they are a team good at picking up the pace, we’ll have to be effective over their shooters because some of them are great, and finally it will be crucial to attack efficiently their very long defenders.”
THE REFEREES – Matej Boltauzer (Slovenia), Emin Mogulkoc (Turkey), Sergio Silva (Portugal).
BASKONIA – Point guard Pierria Henry is leading the EuroLeague in assists (7.2) and steals (1.8) over teammate Luca Vildoza (1.6) who is also one of the best three-point shooters on the team, over 40 percent. The Lithuanian Rokas Giedraitis starts at the off guard (he is averaging 11.9 points per game) and the other Lithuanian Tadas Sedekerskis is often the starter at the small forward position (he’s averaging just 3.1 points per game, but he is shooting 41.7 percent from three). The starting power forward is Achille Polonara, the third-best rebounder in the EuroLeague (6.2 per game) and is also able to be a 44.2 percent three-point shooter. Polonara is the third-best team scorer after Alec Peters and Giedraitis. Peters is a power forward who is shooting 45.0 percent from three and over 90 percent from the line. The center position is divided between Fall, Jekiri and Ilimane Diop, but with the absence of Jekiri in the league Polonara could also play there, as he did in the Spanish league game.
HISTORY LESSON – The all-time record is 9-9. At home, Olimpia is 7-3 against Vitoria with a streak of seven consecutive wins interrupted this season, while in Vitoria the record is 2-6. Olimpia has won twice in Vitoria, during the 2013/14 season, prevailed 83-65 with 17 points from Curtis Jerrells, and during the 2017/18, Olimpia won 83-82 in a thriller, with 16 points each from Andrew Goudelock and Jordan Theodore. The latter made the winning shot on a drive. This season, Vitoria won 84-79 in Milan with 16 points scored by Zoran Dragic. Kevin Punter had 15 for Olimpia.
THE BASKONIA CONNECTION – Vladimir Micov played his first EuroLeague game in the 2009/10 season with Baskonia. During the same season it was then traded to Cantù. For Micov that was the first experience abroad. Michael Roll played in Vitoria, but not in the EuroLeague, at the end of the 2015/16 season. Shavon Shields spent two years in Vitoria and won the ACB Liga in 2020. He played 59 EuroLeague games in Vitoria, scoring 569 points. In the Spanish league, he appeared in 73 games, with 711 points scored. Zoran Dragic used to play in Milan, won a Super Cup (2016) and an Italian Cup (2016/17) before an injury cut short his experience. Ettore Messina and Dusko Ivanovic faced each other in the first championship final, in the history of the EuroLeague in 2001, the only season in which the title was not awarded through a Final Four but with a best-of-five series. Virtus Bologna, coached by Ettore Messina, won 3-2 against Vitoria, who was coached by Ivanovic at the time.
NOTES – Gigi Datome is second behind only Kyle Kuric (Barcelona) in three-point shooting at 55.7 percent. Zach LeDay is ninth (46.7 percent). Shavon Shields is 10th (46.3 percent). Olimpia as a team is first (41.85 percent). Shields has an active streak of eight straight double-digit games. Kevin Punter has hit 22 consecutive free throws. Vlado Micov is 4 rebounds away from 700 in his career. The 20-for20 from the line recorded against Barcelona represents Olimpia’s second-best performance ever in the EuroLeague after a 24-for-24 outing on October 16th, 2015, against Vitoria, also in Milan.
