Olimpia has won five of its last six EuroLeague games, including the last three road games (against Monaco, Barcelona and CSKA), building for itself a high-level ranking. And still, against Zalgiris, at the Mediolanum Forum, in a now rare week with a single game, it will have to further validate its position against a historically difficult opponent. Zalgiris, who won in Vilnius over the weekend, confirming its leadership in the Lithuanian league, struggled during its European season, replaced the coach (Martin Schiller was substituted by Jure Zdovc) and changed the roster a little bit with the additions during the season of Tai Webster and Regimantas Miniotas, in addition to Zoran Dragic, who however has already left the team. Zalgiris was not exactly lucky because Joffrey Lauvergne, the French center around which the team was built, has played just two games so far because of an assortment of injuries. The team relies on Lithuanian players, Lukas Lekavicius, Arturas Milaknis and Edgaras Ulanovas plus the young center Marek Blazevic, 21 years old, 10 points and 10 rebounds in Istanbul during the last round, in a hard-fought game. Olimpia won in Moscow last week without two players who had been instrumental during the previous win over Alba Berlin, Gigi Datome and Jerian Grant. And still the team got a lot from Troy Daniels (6-for-11 from three over the last three outings) and from Trey Kell, a rookie. Olimpia, after the Zalgiris game, will play four games per week over a two-week period, before the break for the national cups. The season is clearly approaching its homestretch. The game will be played on Friday 28 January at 8:30 pm at the Mediolanum Forum.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It is crucial for us not to judge our opponent by its place in the standing or by its record. Zalgiris has had a very unlucky season so far, plagued by many injuries, but this team has been able to compete pretty much in every game. We’ll need to be very patient in executing our offense and pay great attention to details. This is the only way we have to win a game that is really important for our future”.
NICOLO’ MELLI – “It is a home game and we fully understand how important it is to win it, but great attention will be required, because Zalgiris will come to Milan with no pressure and will be dangerous. We need to focus on ourselves, don’t look to the opponent or to whichs players will miss the game, in order to prolong our good stretch and getting closer to the goal we have at the end of this regular season.”
REFEREES – Borys Ryzhyk (Ukraine), Tomislav Hordov (Croatia), Igor Dragojevic (Montenegro).
ZALGIRIS KAUNAS – Zalgiris is used to rotate four guards, Lukas Lekavicius (8.1 points and 3.7 assists per game) who had played for Panathinaikos before returning to Kaunas, Mantas Kalnietis (5.9 points and 4.4 assists per game), Tai Webster (6.0 points per game), a New Zealander who spent the last two years at Galatasaray, and the Latvian Janis Strelnieks (8.7 points, 40.0 percent from three), who missed the last few games with an injury. The forwards are Edgaras Ulanovas (5.8 points, 3.9 rebounds on average, but 16 points and seven rebounds in Istanbul during the last round), Niels Giffey, a veteran coming from Alba Berlin (39.5 percent from three), and Arturas Milaknis, one of the greatest outside shooters in history (6.6 points, 45.3 percent from three, this season). Power forward Tyler Cavanaugh (8.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game) is capable of being dangerous as a shooter, while Josh Nebo (8.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 68.5 percent from two) is an energetic player, who plays strictly inside (however he should be skip the trip because of Covid reasons). Marek Blazevic (6.2 points per game) made himself ready to go during the absence of Lauvergne. Paulius Jankunas is a veteran who is also the first ever in the EuroLeague for games played and rebounds grabbed. He is an iconic player.
HISTORY VS. ZALGIRIS – The two teams met 19 times with a 10-9 record for Zalgiris, 8-6 during the EuroLeague era. During the 1985/86 season, Arvydas Sabonis’ Zalgiris won 80-79 against Olimpia in Kaunas, but Milan made up for it at home by winning 95-66. The following season, when Olimpia was going to win the first of two consecutive European championships, Zalgiris was defeated twice, 75-71 at home, 100-85 in Kaunas. Zalgiris instead won the 1998 Saporta Cup final (82-67) against Olimpia in Belgrade. Last year, Olimpia won both games, in Milan 98-92, in Kaunas 69-64 with 23 points scored by Shavon Shields.
THE ZALGIRIS CONNECTION – Mantas Kalnietis, an Italian league champion with Olimpia in 2016 (he helped the team win two Italian Cups too), played 40 EuroLeague games for Olimpia with 278 points scored. Jure Zdovc, the Zalgiris coach, spent a year at Virtus Bologna as a player under Coach Ettore Messina.
GAME NOTES – Sergio Rodriguez has reached 1,500 assists in his career during the Alba game, a feat surpassed so far only by him, Vassilis Spanoulis, Nick Calathes. He is currently fourth overall for the season in assists averaging 4.95 per game. Rodriguez has scored at least one three in 11 consecutive games and 13 of his last 14. Kyle Hines is three offensive rebounds shy of 700 for his career. Only Felipe Reyes has crossed that threshold by reaching 705. Nicolò Melli, 18 starts out of 18, is the sixth-best defensive rebounder in the EuroLeague with a 4.42 average. He is also 10th in steals with 1.26 per game. Gigi Datome is seventh for three-point shooting at 44.68 percent. Among the players who are in the all-time top 50 in the EuroLeague for three-pointer made, Datome is second with 44.46 percent. His opponent in this game, Arturas Milaknis, is third with 42.81 percent.
