The European champions are coming to town: Anadolu Efes Istanbul, holder of the title won in Cologne last May by beating Barcelona in the championship game, began their EuroLeague season with three defeats while facing a tough schedule, with two road games and a tough home battle with CSKA Moscow. Efes lost to Villeurbanne on Tuesday night after leading by as much as 19 points, on Kostas Anetetokounmpo’s tip-in with 12 seconds left (Shane Larkin’s three-point attempt rimmed out at the buzzer), playing without Kruno Simon. For the second time in a row, Olimpia is facing the EuroLeague top scorer: after Scottie Wilbekin in Maccabi now it is Vasilije Micic’s turn. He scored 24 points in 28 minutes in France, he is averaging 21.7 points per game, making 54.7 percent of his three. Olimpia’s defense is allowing 70.0 points per game, but this will be the most severe test imaginable. So far Olimpia have kept its opponents below 50 percent shooting from two and 25 percent from three, almost unsustainable numbers, especially against Efes, but it is obvious that everything starts from here.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We face a team, we have obviously great respect for, they are the defending champions, we respect their players and Coach Ataman, we are also aware that this is the worst time to face them, since they will come here extremely motivated to win the game. Their offensive quality, their great ability to create space to score a lot points will be a problem for us, just like their size that makes difficult to attack them. At the same time, our confidence level is good and we are proud to be able to compete against last season’s best team.”
SERGIO RODRIGUEZ – “We are playing the European champions, they are a great team, formed by great players. They are experiencing some difficulties that make them even more dangerous, so it will crucial to pay extreme attention to detail to try to win the game.”
THE REFEREES – Borys Ryzhyk (Ukraine), Ilija Belosevic (Serbia), Leandro Lezcano (Argentina).
ANADOLU EFES – Efes is the team that has won the highest number of EuroLeague games during the previous three seasons, 75, tied with CSKA. Efes played the championship game in 2019, was leading the league when the season was stopped in 2020 and won the title in 2021. Another relevant fact: the returning players last year played 7.649 of the 8.225 minutes the team played last season, 93 percent. This figure speaks volumes about how much Efes relies on the continuity factor. In fact, the only newcomer is the Serbian international Filip Petrusev, who also played in the U.S., at Gonzaga, was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers and is the outgoing MVP of the Adriatic League. He replaced Sertac Sanli, who joined Barcelona in the summer. The rest of the group has not changed: Shane Larkin, who holds the record for most points scored in a EuroLeague game with 49, Vasilije Micic, the outgoing MVP of the competition and of the Final Four, Rodrigue Beaubois, Kruno Simon, the Americans James Anderson and Chris Singleton, the power forward from France, Adrien Moerman, the German sweet-shooting big man Tibor Pleiss and Bryant Dunston, the all-time EuroLeague record holder for blocks.
HISTORY VS. EFES – Olimpia have played against Efes 30 times in the EuroLeague since 2005/06 with a record of 10-20. During the 2010/11 season, it won 84-70 in Milan with 24 points from David Hawkins; in 2012/13, again in Milan it won 80-75 with 23 points from Ioannis Bourousis (8/10 from the field and 7 rebounds) and 16 from Keith Langford; in 2013/14 it won twice, 77-73 with a sensational comeback in the last quarter and then in the Top 16, 76-69 with 17 points scored by Curtis Jerrells; in 2015/16, Olimpia won in Milan 88-84 with 26 points from Jamel McLean; in 2016/17 it won 105-92 with 22 points from Rakim Sanders. Three years ago, Olimpia won 77-64 at home. In the first leg of the 2018/19 season, Olimpia won 81-80 with a Mike James three. Last year, Olimpia won the first leg in Istanbul 72-69 with 18 points from Kevin Punter and then won again in Milan, 98-75 with 19 points from Shavon Shields. The overall record is 21-11 for Efes and includes the Korac Cup. Anadolu Efes Istanbul, in fact, in 1996 won the first continental trophy of a Turkish team by winning the Korac Cup against Bogdan Tanjevic’s Stefanel Milano.
THE EFES CONNECTION – Krunoslav Simon played in Milan for two seasons, winning an Italian championship, two Italian Cups and a Super Cup in which he was named MVP of the competition after scoring 25 points in the championship game against Avellino. He is in his fifth season at Efes. Bryant Dunston played a year in Varese in 2012/13, then moved to Olympiacos, playing for the current Olimpia’s general manager, Christos Stavropoulos. Malcolm Delaney and Chris Singleton played together at Lokomotiv Kuban reaching the EuroLeague Final Four in 2016.
GAME NOTES – Kaleb Tarczewski has scored 280 two-point field goals in his career. The all-time leader in the EuroLeague for Olimpia is Vlado Micov with 281. Sergio Rodriguez has scored 126 threes for Olimpia and is now for second all-time behind Vlado Micov’s 162 threes. Rodriguez has scored at least one three in 12 consecutive games. Malcolm Delaney will start the game three points away from 1,500 for his career and three steals away from 100. Devon Hall has scored in double figures in each one of his first three games of his EuroLeague career and is leading all the rookies for minutes played, 82.07. Dinos Mitoglou’s four threes against Maccabi are a career high. He has three while playing for Panathinaikos against Khimki in the first game of the previous season.
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