There’s a reason why PAOK is undefeated this preseason and has swept every Italian team it has faced so far: they’re playing well, executing well, shooting well, and appearing vibrant and well ahead in building a team that will compete to win the Eurocup. Olimpia, on the other hand, is far behind—it lost 89-77 in Biella—but now it can capitalize on this experience to work on the difficulties that emerged. Currently, many players are lagging behind in terms of conditioning, the team is defending well for maybe 20 seconds but not for 24. When they apply pressure and steal the ball, they can run the break brilliantly, but the offense against a set defense isn’t yet fully developed. Looking for the inside pass, or the extra pass generated turnovers and there was never enough space to create good three-point attempts. Against PAOK, Mathews, Cole, and Bolmaro made one three each and two more should be added, following a foul drawn by Guduric and one by Cole, which generated two 3-for-3s. Not enough to have some spacing.
Coach Poeta experimented extensively in this final preseason game, partly out of a need to keep the load under control after an intense practice on Saturday. With Devon Hall resting (and Ousmane Diop also recovering from a small injury), he started Marko Guduric and Darius Thompson replaced RJ Cole at the point. He rotated the players regardless of the situations, so the point guards shared the first-half minutes, as did the power forwards, even using a center-less lineup for a few possessions with Akele as a nominal 5. “Objectively, we didn’t play a good game,” Coach Poeta said. “We have reasons for not being brilliant, because we’ve only practiced together a couple of times: we had players out and others didn’t practice for a couple of days for EuroLeague meeting reasons, so yesterday we pushed a little bit out of necessity, and today many had playing time restrictions. But that’s not the problem: we need to have a bigger sense of urgency in getting on the same page. Rather than talking about problems on defense or offense, this is what we need to do: get on the same page. PAOK is way ahead of us and has proven it. We now have a week of preparation ahead of us to be better prepared for the Super Cup.”
Diego Flaccadori was the best player on the court: he attacked PAOK’s defense at the right times and in the right way, getting to the rim incessantly. His 15 points were scored without any missed shot. Stefano Tonut also sent encouraging signals with his defensive aggressiveness. Overall, after some steals, especially in the first half, Olimpia was capable to run the floor well. On one such sequence in the second period, Olimpia erased the gap, led by Flaccadori. However, the team missed seven free throws and had a few turnovers while looking to make the extra pass. Marko Guduric was also quite effective, both as a facilitator and as a scorer in the early part of the second half.
Olimpia has thus wrapped up its preseason and is now entering in a different mode to prepare for next Saturday’s Super Cup semifinal (at 7:45 p.m.) in Tortona against Virtus Bologna, who will be facing them in this competition for the sixth consecutive time.
ARMANI OLIMPIA MILANO-PAOK THESSALONIKI 77-89
Armani Olimpia Milano: Thompson 2 (1/1, 0/2), Guduric 12 (3/3, -, 6/6), Mathews 3 (1/1), Peters 3 (1/3, 0/1, 1/1), Wright 13 (4/8, -, 5/8), Bolmaro 6 (1/4, 1/2, 1/2), Cole 8 (1/1, 1/2, 3/3) Booker 8 (2/5, -, 4/4), Tonut 3 (1/1, -, 1/2), Burnell 1 (0/1, 0/2, 1/2), Flaccadori 15 (7/7, -, 1/1), Ricci 3 (1/1, -, 1/2), Akele.
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