With eight games to play, the Taliercio game represents a critical crossroad for Olimpia’s regular season and obviously also for tomorrow’s opponent of Reyer Venezia. The two teams are tied in second place, one win behind the second place and two behind the first. Olimpia is coming off a painful week with two road losses, in Bologna in the Italian league, where a streak of seven victories was wins in a row was broken, and in Vitoria in the EuroLeague. After this game, there will be four home games and three on the road. There will only be one direct clash left with league leaders Brescia but on the next to last round. We can expect a very motivated Reyer team after the home defeat suffered against Sassari and on the eve of two road games which will be followed by two direct clashes, at home with Bologna and in Brescia. The sense of urgency in trying to win this game will be sky-high for both teams.
Olimpia defeated Reyer with a 23-point margin in both Milan and Italian Cup games, but here we are playing in Mestre, and everything will be very different. “They have guys capable to change the outcome of a game at every position – Assistant Coach Mario Fioretti remarked – Our priority is to contain their open court game and the multiple pick and roll situations they are able to create off their transition.”
Reyer has a deep team, led by the lefthanded diminutive shooter Marco Spissu and a powerful shooting guard like Rayjon Tucker, an ultra-athletic wing who can shoot around 40 percent on threes. Kyle Wiltjer is a Canadian international who is tall an can shoot the ball from way outside and the other bigs are all complementary: Aamir Simms is a powerful forward; Mfiondu Kabengele is another rugger center; Amedeo Tessitori is strictly a center with a nice touch who can score with the best of them in the middle. Experienced players like Andrea De Nicolao and Jeff Brooks, and the young, emerging Davide Casarin are also part of the rotations next to the combo guard Max Heidegger.
Olimpia left for Venice after practicing at the Oakley Training Center: the roster, turnover aside, is the same Olimpia had in Vitoria so the injured Billy Baron, Alex Poythress and Pippo Ricci will remain out.
