Paris Basketball is a better team than its place in the standings suggest or might seem, given the recent coaching change (Julius Thomas took over from Francesco Tabellini and became the youngest coach to win a EuroLeague game). They’ve won five of their last ten games, their point differential (minus 58) is better than the one of two teams ahead in the standings, and they’ve won seven road games, which demonstrates their ability to play their brand of basketball regardless. If they’re not in contention for the postseason, it’s because they’ve lost eleven games at home. This week, they played their rescheduled game in Bologna and won convincingly without three rotation players: Lamar Stevens, Amath M’Baye, and Allan Dokossi. However, they’re a deep team, with 15 players and at least three options at every position, although Nadir Hifi, Justin Robinson, and Jared Rhoden are usually the main scorers. It won’t be an easy game for Olimpia, who is tryong to get its seventh road win and a record above 50 percent, to stay alive for a postseason spot, a season where even winning 21 games isn’t necessarily enough. Bryant Dunston and Diego Flaccadori are out due to injury. The others are available.

NOTES – Paris Basketball-Olimpia Milano will be played on April 2nd, at 20:45 in Adidas Arena, in Paris.

THE REFEREES – Milivoje Jovcic (Serbia), Marcin Kowalski (Poland), Sergio Manuel (Spain).

COACH PEPPE POETA– “Paris Basketball is a team with a clear identity that wants to play at a high pace. Their strengths include three-point shooting and offensive rebounding, along with the ability to score in the opening seconds of the possession. We’ll have to be able to contain their energy in the opening seconds of any possession, work well on defensive rebounds, and play a balanced offense that avoids turnovers, because they can enhance their transition game.”

PARIS BASKETBALL OUTLOOK – Paris Basketball, a club founded in 2018 by the American David Kahn, a former Minnesota Timberwolves’ general manager, won the Eurocup two years ago, the French title last year, and reached the EuroLeague playoffs la st season. Since the hard-fought game in Milan, Coach Francesco Tabellini has left the team, replaced by Julius Thomas, his former assistant. The team’s star is Nadir Hifi, a combo guard with unlimited shooting range, quick, creative, and a specialist in isolation plays. He’s averaging 19.0 points per game, shooting 46.6 percent from two and 33.9 percent from three. The more traditional point guard is Justin Robinson, a key player in Trapani last year, who is averaging 14.5 points and 4.5 assists per game. Chilean Sebatian Herrera is a shooting specialist (7.2 points in 16.0 minutes), Yakouba Ouattara (6.0 points per game) is an experienced guard and also an excellent shooter, and then completing the lineup is Jared Rhoden (11.9 points on average, 43.3 percent three-point shooting), a guard with great physical and technical skills who, after coming out of Seton Hall, tried unsuccessfully to find a place in the NBA for four years. He is in his first season in Europe. Another option is Joel Ayayi (2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game). The small forward is Jeremy Morgan, who has played in Italy (Trento), Germany (Bonn), France (Bourg), and last year in Israel at Hapoel Jerusalem. He is averaging 5.6 points per game and shooting 44.9 percent from three. The other forward is Lamar Stevens, who has played five seasons in the NBA, the first three in Cleveland and the last in Memphis, and missed the first 12 games due to injury. He now scores 9.1 points per game on 42.5 percent shooting from three, to which he adds 3.4 rebounds per night. He was out for the last game in Bologna. The power forwards are Amath M’Baye, a 20-game starter (he didn’t take part in the Bologna game too), averaging 7.1 points per game; Leopold Cavaliere (3.0 points and 3.2 rebounds per game); and Daulton Hommes, who is recovering from several physical problems but he is recovering (4.9 points, 2.0 rebounds per game, 41.3 percent three-point shooting). Another option is the experienced Derek Willis, who can play two positions, and he is averaging 5.8 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. The centers are former Reggio Emilia player Momo Faye (4.7 points on 63.5 percent shooting from the field, plus 5.1 rebounds, 2.2 of which are offensive) and Allan Dokossi (4.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.1 offensive rebounds, 70.8 percent two-point shooting). Dokossi didn’t play in Bologna and his rotation spot was taken by Enzo Shahrvin.

PARIS BASKETBALL CONNECTION – Amath M’Baye, who joined Paris at the beginning of this season, spent one year with Olimpia during the 2017/18 season, helping the team win a Super Cup and a league title. M’Baye played 30 EuroLeague games with Olimpia, with 183 points scored and 61 rebounds grabbed.

GAME NOTES – With this game, Shavon Shields moves into second place in EuroLeague appearances for Olimpia, tying Kaleb Tarczewski with 156. Nicolò Melli has 180. Zach LeDay is 28 points shy of Bob McAdoo (1,292 points) for second place in Olimpia’s scoring list.