Barcelona is coming to Milan, Coach Messina: “We need to give the best effort, our fans deserve it”

The last home game of the EuroLeague season is a high-level clash because Barcelona will invade the Mediolanum Forum, in the midst of its attempt to finish first in the standings or as high as possible. Barcelona has won eight of its last ten games played. Olimpia has no reachable goals, but it is coming from eight wins over the last 11 EuroLeague games including the last six at home and obviously would like to end the European season in the best possible way. Mostly, because Olimpia will play in front of the home crowd. So far, the average attendance has been 9,294 spectators per game. In a very fluctuating season, the presence of the public has always been a constant for Milan. As were the injuries, unfortunately, with Brandon Davies, Johannes Voigtmann and Kyle Hines being the only players among the top ten for average playing time always available. Among these ten, Devon Hall has missed nine games, Kevin Pangos 18, Shavon Shields 24. For this game, Paul Biligha (injured) and Stefano Tonut (flu-like symptoms) won’t be available.

REFEREES – Ilija Belosevic (Serbia), Matej Boltauzer (Slovenia), Gytis Vilius (Lithuania),

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – "It is the last EuroLeague season game in Milan, and we want to honor it by giving the best of ourselves in front of fans that have always been close to us both in terms of coming to the arena and of supporting the team during games. In spite of finding a way to stay alive until a few days ago with a nice comeback, we are very sorry about not being able to play the post-season for a third straight year. Obviously, we are fully aware that we are facing a high-quality and experienced Barcelona team."

BARCELONA – Barcelona is trying to get to the Final Four for the third consecutive year and for the third year it does so with Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius at the helm and an obviously very deep team. Barcelona has won ten road games so far and is sitting second in the standings. At the point, there are Tomas Satoransky (8.9 points and 4.5 assists per game) and Nicolas Laprovittola (11.2 points and 4.6 assists per game, 42.5 percent three-point shooting) with the support, if necessary, of Rokas Jokubaitis (5.1 points per game, 44.1 percent three-point shooting). The guards are Cory Higgins (8.9 points per game) and the elite shooter Kyle Kuric. At the small forward stand out Nikola Kalinic (6.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game) and Alex Abrines (6.9 points per game, with 48.4 percent on threes). At power forward, the star is Nikola Mirotic, the last season’s MVP, who has eloquent numbers: 16.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, 61.0 percent shooting on twos, 40.0 percent from three-point range. His back-ups are Mike Tobey (5.6 points per game, 42.0 percent from three) and Oscar Da Silva. At the center position, there are Jan Vesely (9.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, 57.9 percent shooting from two) and Sertac Sanli (6.6 points and 3.1 rebounds per game) plus the young prospect James Nnaji.

HISTORY VS. BARCELONA – Barcelona and Olimpia have met 26 times in their history. Barcelona leads the all-time series 15-11, 12-8 during the EuroLeague era. Barcelona is 8-2 at home, Olimpia is 6-3 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 last year: 75-70 at the Mediolanum 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 three 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. Two years ago, Barcelona won in Cologne, in the EuroLeague semi-final, 84-82. Cory Higgins’ jumper at the end proved to be decisive.

THE BARCELONA CONNECTION – Cory Higgins won the EuroLeague with Kyle Hines at CSKA Moscow in 2019 and played next to Jo Voigtmann. Jan Vesely and Nikola Kalinic won it with Fenerbahce and Gigi Datome in 2017 as well as playing with Nicolò Melli with the same team. Brandon Davies played in Barcelona for three years with two Final Four appearances and a Spanish championship. He was coached by Sarunas Jasikevicius also at Zalgiris just like Kevin Pangos. Pangos played for Barcelona for two years, but in his second season, he was injured and practically never managed to play. Deshaun Thomas spent in Barcelona the entire 2014/15 season.

NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – After becoming Olimpia Milan’s all-time leading rebounder in the EuroLeague, Nicolò Melli surpassed the 2.000-point scored barrier. He is the 20th player ever to have at least 2.000 points and 1.000 total rebounds. He has also grabbed his 1.000th defensive rebound. He is the sixth player ever to reach the feat. He has 1.007 now. Ante Tomic is in fifth place with 1.025. In Istanbul, he started a EuroLeague game for the 200th time, the 12th ever to start at least 200 games. Paulius Jankunas is leading the all-time list with 283. Melli is also the 9th best rebounder all-time, tied with Bryant Dunston at 1.347.

KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines is 19 defensive rebounds shy of 1.000 for his career. His streak of 106 consecutive games player for Olimpia is still active. He is the fourth-ever in Olimpia per EuroLeague appearances behind Kaleb Tarczewski, Nicolò Melli and Vlado Micov.

BILLY BARON NOTES – Olimpia is 10-4 when Billy Baron has scored in double digit. In Olimpia wins, Baron is averaging 14.5 points per game and is shooting 47.6 percent from three and 67.5 percent on twos.