Baskonia is coming to Milan, coach Messina: We need to be mentally ready for a tough game

Tomorrow’s game against Baskonia (tip-off time 20:30) represents the seventh game for Olimpia over a 14-day period, including five EuroLeague games. Olimpia has done something remarkable by winning six games out of seven despite the absence of its leading scorer, Shavon Shields, in addition of missing Dinos Mitoglou. The feat was made possible because of the outstanding defensive effort the team produced, because of mental strength and the physicality expressed especially under the boards. The five consecutive wins are a club-high in this competition. Olimpia is 13-1 when it allows under 74 points. And still it has to put all those stuffs aside and focus on a Baskonia team historically dangerous, resting since last Sunday after recovering a key piece of its roster, Alec Peters, the big shooting power forward. As a fact, Baskonia can feature a line-up entirely formed by double-digit scorers (Baldwin, Giedraitis, Fontecchio, Peters and Enoch).

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – "It is another home game after a tough road trip we spent a lot of energy in. For us, it’s crucial to recover the physical and mental energy necessary to play a tough game. Baskonia is different from the team we faced early in the season. They frequently use a line-up capable to stretch the floor with Alec Peters or Simone Fontecchio as a 4. For us to win it is crucial to be mentally ready for a hard-fought game".

DEVON HALL – "We have been playing every other day for some time, so this game against Baskonia is going to be tough regardless. We need our defense, our ball movement and a collective effort as a team to win this very important game".

THE REFEREES – Damir Javor (Croatia), Uros Nikolic (Serbia), Piotr Pastusiak (Poland).

IL BITCI BASKONIA – With its 7-16 record, Baskonia is currently far from the race for a playoff berth, even if the team is accustomed to produce great rushes at the end. Baskonia is 2-9 on the road, it has lost all the five games played in 2022 after the big win over Barcelona in the last game of 2021, an exceptional 94-75. The two road wins matured in Berlin and Munich. Compared to the Vitoria game, the coach has changed, with Neven Spahija replacing Dusko Ivanovic, the center Landry Nnoko has been released, but Alec Peters has returned after a long absence, Lamar Peters has been added and Matt Costello will be in. The team leading scorer is Wade Baldwin, in his third EuroLeague team, Olimpia’s great opponent in last year’s playoffs when he was at Bayern. He is averaging 12.8 points and 3.7 assists per game. The other point guard, the very experienced Jayson Granger (8.0 points and 3.9 assists) can play with or without him. The guards department is completed by Lamar Peters (4.7 points per game, 2.7 assists) and the Serbian Vanja Marinkovic, signed from Valencia. Rokas Giedraitis, the most used player with an average of 28.5 minutes spent on the court, plays both as a guard and as a small forward. He is a great shooter (11.1 points on average, 42.9 percent from three), as is small forward Simone Fontecchio who is scoring 10.9 points per game with 4.2 rebounds and 39.3 percent from three. The Lithuanian forward, Tadas Sedekerskis (5.1 points and 5.1 rebounds per game), is a solid defender and rebounder. Alec Peters is a shooting forward who has only been able to play three games due to injury but has already shown what he can do, averaging 11.0 points per game with 4.7 rebounds, shooting 69.2 percent from two and 50.0 percent from three. Matt Costello averages 7.9 points with 4.6 rebounds per game. He can play two positions and is also dangerous from the perimeter. Center Steven Enoch averages 10.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. He is one of the season best newcomers at his position.

HISTORY VS. BASKONIA – The all-time record between these two teams is 10-10. At home, Olimpia is 7-3 against Vitoria with a streak of seven consecutive wins interrupted last year, while on the road it is 3-7. Olimpia have won three times in Vitoria, during the 2013/14 season in the Top 16 round, 83-65 with 17 points from Curtis Jerrells, during the 2017/18 season, 83-82 with 16 points each from Andrew Goudelock and Jordan Theodore (who scored the winning basket on a drive) and in the first clash this season 78-64 with 12 points and 10 rebounds by Shavon Shields, 13 by Malcolm Delaney, 12 by Devon Hall.

BASKONIA CONNECTION – Shavon Shields spent two years in Vitoria winning the Liga ACB in 2020. Shields played 59 EuroLeague games in Vitoria, scoring 569 points. Another 63 games, he played in the Spanish league with 711 points scored. Obviously, he won’t be available. Simone Fontecchio played in Milan for three seasons but with only 17 EuroLeague appearances on the court. Alec Peters played at CSKA Moscow with Sergio Rodriguez and Kyle Hines.

GAME NOTES – Kyle Hines just became the all-time EuroLeague leader for offensive rebounds with 706, one more than Felipe Reyes grabbed during his career. Nicolò Melli, 23 out of 23 games as a starter, is the eighth-best defensive rebounder in the EuroLeague with 4.4 per game. With the 10 rebounds he got in Kaunas, he surpassed the 400 rebounds grabbed for Olimpia during his career. Gigi Datome is eighth in the three-point shooting with 44. 0 percent. Malcolm Delaney in Belgrade surpassed 500 points scored for Olimpia, now he has 547. He has averaged 14.0 points per game during the current Olimpia’s road-game winning streak (5) while shooting 50.0 percent from three-point range. Kaleb Tarczewski is seven field goals away from 300 and 10 rebounds away from 600, both for Olimpia and overall. Troy Daniels in Kaunas had his third game with four threes made. Now, he is shooting 38.3 percent for the season.