Barca is coming to Milan, Messina: “We’ll give our best, Maodo Lo is available”

Barcelona is coming to Milan, second in the standings by making the most out of its home court. Currently, Barcelona is 11-1 at home and has built its position around this record. But Olimpia has been the only team to win at the Palau Blaugrana and on Friday at the Forum in Assago it will try to complete the third double against Barcelona in history, in front of 12.000 perople. Both teams come from a painful round of the EuroLeague, Barcelona was clearly beaten by Efes in Istanbul, Olimpia lost in Valencia a game brilliantly led for the first 26 minutes and lost in the last four, but two good away wins in their domestic league (Barca in Granada, Olimpia in Pesaro). The injury situation appears to be improving: Barcelona has played the last few games without Nicolas Laprovittola and Alex Abrines, but only the shooter who played in the NBA in Oklahoma City is to be considered out for this Milan game; Olimpia reintroduced Shavon Shields after five games of absence, made Rodney McGruder debut in Valencia, brought back Giordano Bortolani, who was out in Spain, in Pesaro, and Maodo Lo will be available too. For Olimpia it will be a special game, because during the halftime one of the greatest American scorers in the history of European basketball will be celebrated, the great Keith Langford. On top of it, Ettore Messina’s top assistant, Mario Fioretti, will sit on Olimpia’s bench for the 400th in his remarkable career. Tip-off time is 20:30 on Friday.

THE REFEREES – Mehdi Difallah (France), Milan Nedovic (Serbia), Josip Radojkovic (Croatia)

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – "We face a high-level opponent and the kys will be working well on our transition defense and against their pick and roll solutions. We will have Maodo Lo available, so it is one more option to implement in a game we will approach ready to give up our best to try to win and gft our fanbase a big night in a packed Forum."

BARCELONA OUTLOOK – Coached by its former player and first-year coach Roger Grimau, Barcelona is using a consistent starting line-up, featuring two point-guards, Tomas Satoransky (7.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists on average) and Nicolas Laprovittola (13.4 points and 5.8 assists per game, 40.4 percent three-point shooting), who has missed the last few games due to an injury. The starting small forward is Nikola Kalinic (8.6 points per game, an amazing 48.8 percent from three). The two starting big men are Oscar Da Silva (5.0 points on average, 65.0 percent from two) and Jan Vesely (12.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, 63.5 percent from two, not even one three-point attempt), who used to play along Kalinic with Nik Melli at Fenerbahce. The second unit counts on the Lithuanian Rokas Jokubaitis (5.5 points and 3.2 assists on average), who plays two positions, the Spanish international Dani Brizuela (5.1 points per game), the lethal shooter Alex Abrines (6.6 points per game, 55.0 percent from two, 44.7 percent from three), who is doubtful because of an injury, the aggressive power forward Joel Parra (3.2 points and 2.4 rebounds on average), Willy Hernangomez, who returned to Europe after a long NBA experience, who in 16.4 minutes of playing time is scoring 11.4 points, grabs 4.9 rebounds and is shooting 55.0 percent on twos, and finally Jabari Parker, a former Duke standout and second player drafted in 2014. Parker is a power forward who appeared in 310 NBA games and average 14.1 points per game during his career. Right now, in Barcelona, he is averaging 10.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game on 40.8 percent shooting on twos. Oriol Pauli, an eclectic swingman, and James Nnanji, an explosive center, complete the roster.

HISTORY VS BARCELONA – Barcelona and Olimpia have met 28 times in their history. Barcelona leads the all-time series 15-13, 12-9 during the EuroLeague era. Overall, Barcelona is 8-5 at home, Olimpia is 8-6 when playing in Milan. On neutral court, it is 1-0 Barcelona. In recent years there have been some sensational Olimpia wins over Barcelona and some painful defeats. In 2014, EA7 won with a resounding 91-63 no-contest, inspired by Alessandro Gentile’s 24 points, and inflicted to Barcelona the worst European defeat since 2007, interrupting a streak of 24 consecutive victories in the Top 16. Five years ago, Olimpia won both games, the first at home 78-74 with 19 points scored by Jordan Theodore and the second on the road, 83-81, with a decisive field goal made by Dairis Bertans with five seconds left in the game. Andrew Goudelock scored 20 points; Arturas Gudaitis added 16 and went 7-for-7 from the field. Olimpia swept the series again in 2022: 75-70 at the Forum with 17 points coming from Gigi Datome and 16 from Devon Hall. In the second game, in Barcelona, ​​Olimpia won 75-73. Another memorable win was that of four years ago, in Milan, when Olimpia defeated Barcelona 93-80 with a sensational 31-12 comeback with 17 points and seven assists made by Sergio Rodriguez, 16 points and eight rebounds coming from Vlado Micov. 14 points were also scored by Luis Scola. Olimpia this season has won the Barcelona game 90-86, with Devon Hall scoring 21 points and Diego Flaccadori added 15. In 2021, Barcelona won in Cologne, in the EuroLeague semi-final, 84-82. Cory Higgins’ jumper at the end proved to be decisive. In history, there have been four games between these two teams during the 1987/88 season. Barcelona won in Milan during the qualification phase of the Intercontinental Cup, but Olimpia prevailed 104-94 in the championship game. That season, Barcelona defeated Olimpia twice in the Euroleague regular season but didn’t qualify for the Final Four. That was the season, Olimpia won the European title for its third time.

THE BARCELONA CONNECTION – Nikola Mirotic is the only Olimpia player who spent some time in Barcelona. He was there four seasons, for 127 EuroLeague appearances, all of them as a starter. During his time in Barcelona, the team reached the Final Four three times. He averaged 16.8 points per game.

DEVON HALL NOTES – Devon Hall’s index rating of 30 in Valencia is a new career-high. Hall had set another personal best in Barcelona when he scored 21 points. In the last three games he has 8 steals; in the last four he scored 56 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, dished 11 assists, shot 15-for-20 (75.0 percent) from two, 6-for-13 from three, 8-for-9 on free throws.

NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – Nicolò Melli has just passed Georgios Printezis and is sitting in 4th place all-time for defensive rebounds grabbed in the EuroLeague. He is only five defensive rebounds shy of the 3rd place that belongs to Felipe Reyes (1.094). At the same time, he is 9th for total rebounds (1.448). The 8th in the list is again Printezis with just four more boards (1.452).

SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – Despite being used with extreme minutes restrictions, after five games of absence, Shields scored at least two three for the tenth consecutive game in Valencia. Overall, he is second in terms of number of made three on average. His current 45.3 percent shooting on threes would be a career high for a season (his best is 43.2 percent in the 2020/21 season). The 16.4 points per game (top: 13.8 in 2020/21) and the 17.0 average rating (top: 15.0 in 2020/21) would also be personal records. Shields’ most notable stat is in his number of three-point shots. In 2021/22 he averaged 4.1 attempts (34.6 percent), currently he has 6.9 attempts per game on 45.3 percent shooting.

GIORDANO BORTOLANI NOTES – Giordano Bortolani went in double figures in all of the last four EuroLeague games played, scoring 47 points overall, 11.8 on average with 11-for-17 from three. Bortolani is sixth overall in three-point shooting (51.6 percent).