In Madrid, Olimpia is playing its third consecutive EuroLeague road game after a 1-1 record in Athens. Olimpia will take on a team that has recently lost a few games but is still in the running for the first and second place, a team equipped with great depth, incredible size and no tangible weaknesses. Real Madrid is also one of the three teams that have won in Milan this season, they are traditionally difficult to play against for how they clog the middle on defense, use the physical size to dominate the rebounds and shoot with very high percentages in the paint. Edy Tavares and Vincent Poirier are a tough one-two punch, but the two can also play together as happened during the Milan game, which incidentally was when Shavon Shields got injured. Since then, Olimpia have won eight out of 10 games relying on its defense and has basically clinched a berth for the playoffs for the second consecutive season, a first for the club during the EuroLeague modern era (as of now, the standing will be compiled by eliminating all the games the teams have played against the Russian teams. Following this criteria, Olimpia is 16-6, tying for second with Real Madrid). Real has already played a game this week, in Belgrade, where it made up for a game suspended earlier in the season. Tip-off time in Madrid will be at 20:45 on Thursday, March 10th. Unfortunately, the absence of Sergio Rodriguez will add up to the ones of Shavon Shields, Gigi Datome and Trey Kell. It is the first game that Rodriguez will skip in his EuroLeague season.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It is obviously a very difficult game, because Real Madrid will be ready to play with extreme focus and determination, offensively and defensively, using its entire potential. Unfortunately, we won’t have Shields, Datome and Kell, and also we won’t have Sergio Rodriguez with us: he asked to stay in Milan, for personal reasons. It is clearly a huge loss for us. Against Real Madrid, the first order of problems is always trying to stay competitive in rebounds and to have good spacing offensively to limit the struggles against Tavares’ presence in the middle. We hope to do well in this regard and play a very good game.”
MALCOLM DELANEY – “This is a very important game for the standings and the homecourt playoff push. Real Madrid is a very good team, coming off of a few losses, so we know they’ll have extra motivation at home, in front of their crowd.”
THE REFEREES – Olegs Latisevs (Latvia), Gytis Vilius (Lithuania), Joseph Bissang (France).
REAL MADRID – This is the deepest team in Europe. It currently does not have the young point guard Carlos Alocen, who is injured, and in recent games didn’t have Fabien Causeur too, but the rest of the team is made up only of stars including Gabriel Deck, the Argentine forward who left the team before the playoffs to go to the NBA in Oklahoma City but has come back lately. Real Madrid is first in rebounding, second in offensive rebounding, first for shots blocked and is the best team at defending against the two-point shots. It is also 13.1 at home where it has won 16 of its last 17 EuroLeague games. Looking at the sheer numbers, it is just a little inefficient shooting the ball from the outside. And yet Real Madrid is counting on two of the best five three-point shooters in the history of the EuroLeague, Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernandez. The point guards are Thomas Heurtel (9.3 points and 4.9 assists per game), Sergio Llull (7.1 points per game) and Nigel Williams-Goss (6.0 points, 2.2 assists per game) who can also play as a guard as well as Causeur. Rudy Fernandez (6.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game) can take the two perimeter positions as Alberto Abalde (6.3 points and 3.2 rebounds) regularly does. Players with clear defensive characteristics around the perimeter are Adam Hanga (5.3 points, 2.8 rebounds per game) and Jefferey Taylor (3.3 points per game, 41.4 percent from three). Gabriel Deck plays both forward positions. The starting power forward is Guerschon Yabusele, 11.5 points per game, 57.8 percent from two, 37.5 percent from three, 4.6 rebounds, one of the most consistent Real Madrid player this season, so far. Anthony Randolph (4.1 points per game, 57.9 percent from two) and Trey Thompkins (7.0 points per game, 45.5 percent from three) are veterans coming off long-term injuries that have played less than half of the games this season. The center is obviously the great Edy Tavares, 12.5 points per game, 75.7 percent from two, 7.6 rebounds, 1.9 blocks per game, a dominant player in terms of physical size, height, skills. His back-up is Vincent Poirier, who played in the NBA and is averaging 7.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, shooting 58.5 percent from two.
HISTORY VS. REAL MADRID – In European competitions Olimpia Milan and Real Madrid have met 35 times, with Real Madrid leading 24-11 the all-time series. Real had a streak of 14 consecutive wins interrupted in Milan, last season, a 78 -70 Olimpia win, with 25 points from Sergio Rodriguez and 17 from Shavon Shields. Real Madrid-Olimpia awarded the European Cup in 1967 in Madrid and the Cup Winners’ Cup in Ostend in 1984: in both circumstances, Real won. This game has been played 17 times in Madrid. Milan has won twice. The first win in Madrid dates to the 2003/04 Uleb Cup. The game finished 62-61 (Lonnie Cooper and Claudio Coldebella had 11 points; Antonis Fotsis had 19 for Real) for Olimpia. The second dates to the last season, 80-76 with 17 points from Sergio Rodriguez and 14 from Malcolm Delaney. 16 times the game was played in Milan (9-7 Olimpia). Once on a neutral court (Ostend). Real Madrid won its first European Cup in 1964 by beating Spartak Brno in the final after losing the championship game in two consecutive years. In those years, it won the title four times in a five-year span, the only exception being 1966 when Olimpia (which Real had eliminated in the 1964 semifinals) was the winner. Real was eliminated in the equivalent of the quarterfinals by Olimpia: in Madrid, Emiliano Rodriguez scored 20 points and Real Madrid won 71-66, but at Palalido, Simmenthal played a prodigious game, won 93-76 with 40 points scored by Gabriele Vianello and 27 from Bill Bradley. So, Olimpia qualified for the Final Four where it defeated CSKA Moscow and then Slavia Prague in the historical championship game in Bologna on April 1, 1966. The following season Real Madrid and Olimpia Milano met again in the championship game, and Real Madrid prevailed 91-83 (29 Emiliano; Red Robbins scored 32 points).
THE REAL MADRID CONNECTION – Ettore Messina coached Real Madrid for nearly two years with a 23-13 record in the EuroLeague. Sergio Rodriguez, however not available for this game, played for Real Madrid for six seasons, returning from the NBA and before moving to Philadelphia. Over these six seasons he has won the EuroLeague championship in 2015, he was the MVP of the competition in 2014, won the Spanish title three times, the King’s Cup four times, the Spanish Super Cup three times. Twice he has won the assist crown in the Spanish league. In 2018/19, with CSKA Moscow, he beat Real Madrid in the semifinals on the way to his second European title.
GAME NOTES – Nicolò Melli, who has started every game so far, as only Chris Jones at Asvel Villeurbanne did, is the fourth defensive rebounder in the EuroLeague with an average of 4.7 right behind Edy Tavares. He is sixth in total rebounds with 6.2, too. Melli is also ninth for steals. Kyle Hines has surpassed 1,600 career rebounds. He now has 1,602, one less than Ioannis Bourousis and his third place all-time. He is also 29 points away from 3,000 for his career. Furthermore, he is seven two-pointers away from the all-time first place that is currently taken by Georgios Printezis of Olympiacos, who is also active.
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