Olimpia starts on Tuesday 26 January at the Mediolanum Forum, against Olympiacos Piraeus, a tough double round at home. Zenit St. Petersburg will come to town two days later, and this is a team that is essentially fighting for the first place. Combining the double rounds set by the schedule and those created by postponements, this is the seventh occasion for Olimpia in which it plays two rounds of EuroLeague competition in the same week. In the previous six, it has a record of eight wins and four losses, it is 4-2 in the first game, 4-2 in the second, 4-2 at home and 4-2 away. A very regular roadmap. Milan faces Olympiacos with two more wins and three fewer losses, in the standing. But in the first leg, Olympiacos won 86-75, netting an 11-point lead in head-to-head games. Olimpia is also riding a four-game winning streak.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We face an excellent team, with a lot of physicality, depth, and well-organized defensively and offensively around two players like Kostas Sloukas and Vassilis Spanoulis. Our pick and roll defense, control of the rebounds, and accuracy attacking their switching defense will be crucial in order to try to win a game, in which we still don’t know if we’ll be able to use our entire roster.”

ZACH LEDAY – “We face a tough team that was able to beat us in Athens so we know how dangerous it is. Playing hard for 40 minutes and paying attention to the detail and the defense aspect of the game will be crucial.”

THE REFEREES – Borys Ryzhyk (Ukraine), Mehdi Difallah (France), Anne Panther (Germany).

NOTES – Gigi Datome has an open streak of 27 free throws made and is third behind Kyle Kuric (Barcelona) and William Howard (Asvel) in three-point shooting, 57.1 percent. Zach LeDay, who has a streak of five consecutive double-digit games, is fourth on 55.3 percent shooting and has made at least one three in eight consecutive games. Olimpia, as a team, is first, 42.4 percent. Kevin Punter (the league tenth-best scorer with 14.1 per game) has made at least one three in 26 of his last 27 EuroLeague appearances and has scored in double figures in 20 of the last 22. Malcolm Delaney has scored at least one three in 15 consecutive games, has stolen at least one ball in 10 of his last 11 appearances. Shavon Shields is sixth in steals, averaging 1.38 per game, and is seventh in three-point shooting at 48.1 percent. He has a streak of eight games with at least one three made and has had at least one steal in 13 of his last 14 appearances. Kyle Hines is three blocks away from becoming the second ever in the EuroLeague replacing Fran Vazquez. Sergio Rodriguez is five threes shy of becoming the fifth-best ever ahead of Milos Teodosic. He is also entering into the game 35 points away from 3.000 for is career. Kaleb Tarczewski just cleared the 500 rebounds threshold for his EuroLeague career.

OLYMPIACOS – Olympiacos has lost the last two, at home to Asvel and in Kaunas, but had previously won three games in a row. So, it is fully invested in the play-offs’ race. The star player is Kostas Sloukas, the only one who has started every game, 21 out of 21, who is averaging 12.1 points per game, with 6.1 assists on 42.7 percent three-point shooting. The second-best scorer is Shaquille McKissic (10.4 per game); Hassan Martin averages 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, and is shooting 73.5 percent from two. As a team Olympiacos is converting 55.6 percent from two, thanks also to Octavius ​​Ellis (71.7 percent) and Giorgios Printezis (59.8 percent). The latter also is shooting 51.8 percent from downtown. Sasha Vezenkov is shooting 41.8 percent from three. Olympiacos is a deep team, with many players being involved in the regular rotation including Charles Jenkins (he’s not scoring much, but he is shooting with great accuracy, 41.8 percent from three) and Aaron Harrison (9.6 points on average) among the guards; Kostas Papanikolau, who has missed the last six games; and the power forward Livio Jean-Charles. The legendary Vassilis Spanoulis, who still averages 7.0 points per game with 2.4 assists, is obviously a big part of the team. He’s the EuroLeague all-time leading scorer and first for assists.

THE OLYMPIACOS CONNECTION – Christos Stavropoulos, the Olimpia Milan general manager, spent 19 years at Olympiacos, winning the EuroLeague twice, among many more accomplishments. Both wins featured Kyle Hines, who played two years for Olympiacos, before moving to CSKA Moscow. In his two years at Olympiacos, Hines played 53 EuroLeague games scoring 503 points and capturing 286 rebounds. Olympiacos coach Georgios Bartzokas coached Olympiacos under Stavropoulos. Charles Jenkins, in his first season at Olympiacos, played for Olimpia during the 2015/16 season, winning the Italian Cup and the Italian championship. Andrea Cinciarini was among his teammates. Zach LeDay spent a season at Olympiacos Piraeus two years ago before moving to Zalgiris Kaunas. Last year Kevin Punter spent at Olympiacos the first half of the season. Kostas Sloukas won the EuroLeague at Fenerbahce playing alongside Gigi Datome. Coach Bartzokas coached Malcolm Delaney at Lokomotiv Kuban.

Share the article with your friends and support the team

Share the article with your friends and support the team
URL Copied to clipboard! Copia link