The day long awaited is finally here. On Friday 28 May and in Cologne, at the Lanxess Arena, tip-off at 21:00, Olimpia will play its EuroLeague semi-final against Barcelona, the team that won the regular season and against which it lost twice during the year, albeit under different circumstances and different ways. Both teams qualified by winning their respective playoff series 3-2: Olimpia did it by defending its home-court, Barcelona made up for the home defeat in Game 1 against Zenit by winning Game 3 on the road. Milan has also won the last nine Italian league games despite having had to overcome a series of ailments, the last one hit Kevin Punter, unavailable during the last Monday’s game against Venezia.
BARCELONA – In numerical terms, it has the best defense in the entire EuroLeague. Barcelona kept its opponents to 72.8 points per game and 43.7 percent shooting from the field. The key number could be 70, in the sense that when they held the opponents under 70 points scored, Barcelona has won 10 times out of 11. But it could be 80 because when they allowed more than 80 points, they lost six times out of eight. The defense of Barcelona is also the one that forces the most opponent turnovers. On the other hand, it is also the team that had the highest average of turnovers in the competition, and in this the difference with Milan’s statistics is striking. Eight players have Final Four experience, Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius as a player has even won them with four different teams. Pau Gasol has played three NBA Finals with the Lakers, twice his team won.
OLIMPIA – The best trait was the discipline in handling the ball which in turn generated good three-pointers. Milan had 11.0 turnovers per game, first in the entire EuroLeague, the best figure in the last three seasons of the competition, no team excluded. Ball circulation allowed Olimpia to have the second best three-point shooting team in the entire EuroLeague, the best of the teams that have played in the playoffs. Its 41.0 percent for the season is a club record. Finally, Olimpia is also the best of the finalists from the line, converting 81.8 percent of its attempts.
OLIMPIA – Sreten Radovic (Croatia), Matej Boltauzer (Slovenia), Olegs Latisevs (Latvia). Latisevs is officiating his ninth Final Four. Boltauzer is here for the fifth time and Radovic for the second time.
HISTORY LESSON – Barcelona is leading the all-time series 13-9, 10-6 during the EuroLeague era. In 2014, Olimpia prevailed with a sensational 91-63 inspired by Alessandro Gentile’s 24 points and inflicted to Barcelona its worst European defeat since 2007. Three years ago, Olimpia won both games, the first at home 78-74 with 19 points scored by Jordan Theodore and the second was a 83-81 road win, with the winning basket made by Dairis Bertans. Andrew Goudelock scored 20 points, Arturas Gudaitis 16, 7-for-7 from the field. Last year, Olimpia with a sensational 31-12 fourth quarter defeated Barcelona 93-80 with 17 points and seven assists from Rodriguez, 16 points and eight rebounds from Micov, 14 points from Luis Scola. In the return match Barcelona won 84-80 with 26 points and nine assists from Malcolm Delaney, who back then played for the Blaugrana team. This year, Barcelona won 87-71 at home, coming back in the last quarter with a 27-10 run, and then, Barcelona won in Milan, 72-56.
THE BARCELONA CONNECTION – Malcolm Delaney played for Barcelona last year, with 26 EuroLeague appearances and 266 points scored. Cory Higgins won the EuroLeague along Sergio Rodriguez and Kyle Hines with CSKA Moscow. Nikola Mirotic played along Sergio Rodriguez at Real Madrid. During the 2010/11 season both were coached by Ettore Messina. Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius coached Zach LeDay last season at Zalgiris Kaunas. Malcolm Delaney and Victor Claver also played for Lokomotiv Kuban together at the 2016 Final Four.
PLAYER NOTES – Kevin Punter has had at least one steal in 12 of the last 13 games and has hit 45 of his last 47 free throws attempted, and finally went 17-for-18 in the playoffs. He is six threes from making 100 in his career. Vlado Micov, after having exceeded 700 rebounds in his career, also reached 300 rebounds for Olimpia. Sergio Rodriguez has surpassed 1,400 assists in his career and 300 for Olimpia. He is eight threes shy of 500 in his career and has scored exactly 700 points for Olimpia. Zach LeDay has a streak of 22 free throws made and is 34 points shy of 1,000 points scored. Malcolm Delaney has scored 1.465 points so far, 35 away from 1500. He is four steals away from 100. Shavon Shields was MVP of the week, coinciding with Game 5 of the playoffs. He is the 10th player in Olimpia’s history to win the award. Before him, Mike Hall (2008/09), Omar Cook (2011/12), Curtis Jerrells (2013/14), Samardo Samuels and Alessandro Gentile (2014/15), Jamel McLean in 2015/16; Ricky Hickman in 2016/17; Mike James in 2018/19; and Kevin Punter this season against CSKA Moscow accomplished the feat. The 34 points scored by Shavon Shields in that Game 5 represent the third all-time EuroLeague scoring performance of a Olimpia player after Samardo Samuels’s 36 in Nizhny Novgorod in 2015 and Mike James’s 35 in Madrid in 2019. In the same game he set his new index rating all-time record of 41 and his 11 free throws made were also a personal best.
