Every game is a final, every game is a playoff. These are concepts that are often used in the EuroLeague, sometimes too often. But that is not the case here: with five games remaining, Olimpia goes to Paris to face a team that has the same win-loss record. Eventually, it will have two more rounds against teams that are one win behind Milan (Real Madrid) or are tied in the standings (Barcelona). In this case, we can talk about a final, exactly as happened last week in Belgrade. Olimpia is in the wild segment of the standings: one win higher up, there are the teams that occupy the fourth and fifth place; one win lower down, there is even the twelfth team in the standings. With five rounds to go, the standings have been almost reset: anything can happen and many teams are simultaneously fighting to access the playoffs and to grab a spot in the play-in. Paris Basketball was even at the top of the standings during this season, then it had a dip but did not collapse, so much so that it won five of the last ten games and in the last round, in Kaunas, it lost only on the last shot after a furious comeback from twenty points down by the home team. It is a team in good shape and aware of its value, as was also seen in Milan in the second round of the regular season. It is a team built around the enormous talent of point guard TJ Shorts, the former Eurocup MVP, second in assists, fourth-best scorer of the competition so far. Olimpia has won the last two road games, in Kaunas and Belgrade, with close margins, a nice turnaround compared to the first part of the season. Freddie Gillespie also got on the plane to Paris, having recovered from the head injury that forced him to observe a period of inactivity: his use will be decided directly in Paris. The same is true for Nikola Mirotic who will try to play just like he did in Belgrade.
Tip off time in Paris will be on Tuesday, 18, at 20:30.
REFEREES – Juan Carlos Garcia (Spain), Milan Nedovic (Serbia), Carlos Cortes (Spain).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA– “We face one of the surprise team of the competition, well coached and oragnized by Coach Tiago Splietter, a team capable to play very uptempo especially at home. For us, it will crucial to produce a good shot selection in order to have a better transition defense. We are happy that Freddie Gillespie, regardless of his ability to play in Paris, has been recevored with no further consequence after his terrifying hit during the Fenerbahce game.”
PARIS BASKETBALL OUTLOOK – Coached by Tiago Splitter, a former NBA player among several teams in San Antonio too, a rookie at the EuroLeague level, Paris Basketball is the team that the lowest number of turnovers per game and allows the least steals to opponents, is second in three-point attempts per game (30.0) after Bayern and defends strongly on the perimeter where it holds opponents under 34 percent. For most of the season, it has always used the same starting five, then recently guard Ouattara lost minutes. Last week, Collin Malcolm was a starter but at the guard spot the most used player is Nadir Hifi, who regularly comes off the bench. Tyson Ward is the small forward; Mikael Jantunen is the power forward and Kevarrius Hayes is the center. TJ Shorts is scoring 18.6 points per game as a rookie with 44.9 percent from three: the outside shot should have been his limit, but even if he uses it little, the numbers are with him. Shorts is also second in assists with 7.0 per game and is second in personal rating with 22.6. Hifi, almost twenty minutes on the court but always off the bench, is in fact one of the most prolific sixth men in the league with 14.7 points per game (he is shooting 32.7 percent from three). Behind Shorts, as a point guard, there is Maodo Lo, another productive scorer from the second unit with 10.2 points in less than 18 minutes per game on the court. The experienced (33 years old) Yakuba Ouattara averages 4.6 points per game; Malcolm, who seems to have replaced him in the starting five, avregaes 8.1 points per game. Ward as a small forward, 29 games as a staretr out of 29, is known for his defensive skills but averages 10.5 points per game on 57.1 percent two-point shooting, in addition to grabbing 4.7 rebounds per game. Finnish Jantunen has always started at power forward: he averages 7.0 points and grabs 4.7 rebounds per game, he is shooting 62.0 percent from two and 35.4 percent from three but he was affected by a streak of games in which he shot 1 of 24 from the arc. He has recently found his rhythm back and last week in Kaunas he scored 17 points with 7 of 9 from the field. The back-up is the American Daulton Hommes (4.0 points per game) who returned for the last five games after missing 24 due to an injury. 35-year-old Bandia Sy is another member of the big men rotation next to Leon Kratzer, in support of the most experienced EuroLeague player of the team, with Maodo Lo, Kevarrius Hayes (6.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, 59.2 percent two-point shooting). Shooter Sebastian Herrera and forward Leopold Cavaliere are other players who occasionally get some time from Coach Splitter.
PARIS BASKETBALL CONNECTION – Maodo Lo, who came to Paris in the summer, played 21 games last year with Olimpia, scoring 159 points.
SCHEDULE – Olimpia plays twice at home and three times on the road in the last five games of the regular season. After Paris (16-13), Olimpia will play in Madrid (15-14), at home with Barcelona (16-13) before finishing in Bologna and at home with Baskonia, two teams that have now been eliminated from contention. Looking at the head-to-head clashes, Olimpia – considering the teams that occupy from the fourth to twelfth positions – is 0-2 with Bayern Munich and Anadolu Efes Istanbul; is 2-0 with Red Star; 1-1 but a negative point difference with AS Monaco and Partizan. It stille has to play with Paris Basketball (1-0, +5 in the first leg); Real Madrid (1-0, +9); Barcelona (1-0, +13).
NIKOLA MIROTIC NOTES – Nikola Mirotic has scored 3,992 points for his career, eight points away from the 4,000-point threshold. He has scored 810 points for Olimpia so far. Mirotic is also one three-pointer away from making 100 threes with Olimpia.
SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – During the Belgrade game against Red Star, Shavon Shields became Olimpia’s all-time leader in two-point field goals with 373, surpassing Kyle Hines’ 371. Shields is already first all-time in three-pointers with Olimpia (211) and is 14 free throws shy of Arturas Gudaitis’ 258, the club’s all-time leader.
