Coach Messina: “We have played good games under the same difficulties before”

14/12/2023 20:32
CIAMILLO-CASTORIA
CIAMILLO-CASTORIA

Messina: Our emergency situation with key players missing continues, but at the same time the the guys have been practicing with great effort and responsibility.

Olimpia is facing its third EuroLeague road game in a row, before a three-game home stint (Asvel Villeurbanne, Panathinaikos, Baskonia) that will close the 2023 and the first half of the season. It will be the last first half road game, but a very complicated one, in Barcelona. The blaugrana team, winner of the last Spanish championship, a team that qualified for the last three Final Fours, changed some components during the summer (Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, Nikola Mirotic, Cory Higgins and Sertac Sanli too) but the team skill level and aspirations are still the same. Roger Grimau in his first season as a head coach is managing a team with a strong Spanish core because of the additions of Dani Brizuela, Joel Parra and Willy Hernangomez. The only addition from abroad is Jabar Parker, a former NBA draft overall second pick. The outcomes have been excellent. The core players are experienced and consistent (Satoransky, Laprovittola, Abrines, Vesely and Kalinic). Olimpia is approaching this game after some idle days over a 11-game month. Last week, it faced three EuroLeague-caliber game, including the Italian league clash against Bologna, that followed a similar script. Olimpia played well for most of the night, led consistently and then threw the lead away because of a few crazy minutes. Those minutes were paid painfully in Munich and Belgrade, not against Bologna on Sunday. The Barcelona game obviously carries a high degree of difficulties. Barcelona is, as of now, in second place, is dominant at home (7-0; 13-1 including the Spanish league), has got a lot of depth, energy, experienced, size among the perimeter players. Staying in the game, playing with no Nikola Mirotic, no Billy Baron and no Maodo Lo, will require a monumental effort physically and mentally, besides a high quality game.

THE REFEREES – Ilija Belosevic (Serbia), Anne Panther (Germany), Kristaps Konstantiovs (Latvia)

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “Our emergency situation with key players missing continues, but at the same time the the guys have been practicing with great effort and responsibility. We have played a lot of good games before under the same circumstamces, so we will try hard to play another one, against a great Barcelona team with depth, physicality, experience.”

BARCELONA OUTLOOK – Coached by former player and first-year coach Roger Grimau, Barcelona is in second position in the standings behind Real Madrid and is unbeaten at home, seven wins out of seven games played. Grimau is opting for a set, fairly consistent starting line-up, featuring two point-guards, Tomas Satoransky (8.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.8 assists on average) and Nicolas Laprovittola (14.1 points and 5.9 assists per game, 45.6 percent three-point shooting). The starting small forward is Nikola Kalinic (6.5 points per game, 43.6 percent from three). The two big men starting are Oscar Da Silva (5.0 points on average, 66.7 percent from two) and Jan Vesely (11.9 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, 62.0 percent from two, not even one three-point attempt). The second unit counts on the Lithuanian Rokas Jokubaitis (5.5 points and 3.1 assists on average), who plays two positions, the Spanish international Dani Brizuela (3.3 points per game), the lethal shooter Alex Abrines (7.2 points per game, but 61.1 percent from two, 45.7 percent from three), who is doubtful because of an injury that prevented him from playing in the last ACB game, the power forward Joel Parra (2.1 points and 2.1 rebounds on average) and Willy Hernangomez, who returned to Europe after a long NBA experience, who in 17 minutes of playing time is scoring 12.2 points, grabbed 4.9 rebounds and shooting 57.3 percent on twos. Oriol Pauli, an eclectic swingman, and James Nnanji, an explosive center, complete the roster.

HISTORY VS BARCELONA – Barcelona and Olimpia have met 27 times in their history. Barcelona leads the all-time series 15-12, 12-8 during the EuroLeague era. Overall, Barcelona is 8-4 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 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 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. 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.

KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines is one rebound shy of the second place all-time that currently belongs to Felipe Reyes (1.799), behind the leader Paulius Jankunas (2.010). Hines is already the best offensive rebounder in EuroLeague history.

NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES –Nicolò Melli has just passed Kaleb Tarczewski’s 156 games played as the All-Time leader for Olimpia in the EuroLeague. Now he has 159. Meanwhile, he has put Ante Tomic behind him as the sole holder of fifth place All-Time in the defensive rebounds list. The fourth place belongs to Georgios Printezis with 1,065, six rebounds ahead of the Olimpia captain.

SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – Over the last six games, Shavon Shields has scored 124 points (20.7 on average), shooting 16-for-26 from two, 25-for-47 from three. Shields has career averages of 11.7 points and 12.0 index rating per game. This season: 17.4 points and 17.3 points index rating per game. He is shooting a career-high 46.5 percent from three.

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