ALBA Berlin is coming to town, Messina: It’s important, we need to start mentally aggressive

Another week with three games for Olimpia, in a never-ending roller-coaster, is starting. Milan faces Alba Berlin on Tuesday coming from three consecutive wins between the Italian league and the EuroLeague. This is the second consecutive EuroLeague home game after three road games. Olimpia will also be in Barcelona on Friday. Alba’s got seven wins so far and has lost the last two games, but during the last round it was defeated by Fenerbahce by four and led for most of the game. Alba has won three times on the road, two in Athens and one in Belgrade, and lost to Fenerbahce in Istanbul after two overtimes. It is a team with great offensive potential, capable to average 83.9 points per game and to shoot 38.6% from three-point range, exactly like the Olimpia, thanks to the presence of several shooting specialists led by the Swedish Marcus Eriksson, the American point-guard Makai Mason and obviously Rokas Giedraitis, the team top scorer with 13.5 points per game.

OLIMPIA – Against the Alba shooters, the defense will be crucial. Olimpia allows the opponents to shoot 34.6% from three-point range, third overall in the EuroLeague, and with the defense it overturned the last game against Bayern Munich. Coach Messina, however, will not have power forward Jeff Brooks again. The absence has forced him to find new solutions at the 4-spot in which Vlado Micov played a lot against Bayern. Obviously, Riccardo Moraschini will not be available either, while Andrea Cinciarini – stopped last week, but used in Brindisi – will continue the recovery work from the left calf injury that still annoys him and will not be used against Alba. Paul Biligha, because of some minor problems with his right thigh, is doubtful. Arturas Gudaitis and Amedeo Della Valle, who had flu-like symptoms in the last few days, practiced on Monday and will be available. Drew Crawford, who made his debut against Bayern last week, will play his second EuroLeague game.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – "Alba is a team that plays with great energy and physicality, and like all the teams coached by Coach Aito has a beautiful organization of movement offensively, and it is also one of the teams that take more three-point shots in the Euroleague. We will have to have offensive balance in order to recover fast and limit the number of open threes that Alba will take. We know how important this game is for us, so we will have to approach it with mental aggressiveness right from the start".

THE REFEREES – Damir Javor (Croatia), Seffi Shemmesh (Israel), Josif Radojkovic (Croatia).

THE ALBA CONNECTION – Marcus Eriksson last year when he was in Gran Canaria scored 28 points against Olimpia, setting a career record in the game won by Milan on the road. Rokas Giedraitis and Arturas Gudaitis played together in Vilnius.