The home debut in the EuroLeague takes place against the team that scored the most on the opening night. Alba Berlin produced 100 points in its great win over Partizan. Alba scored 61 points in the first half and had 31 assists for the game, the result of a great ball movement. There is no doubt that this is a difficult game for Olimpia. Alba has basically the same team from last season, the one that won the German championship for the second consecutive year, it has the same Spanish coach, Israel Gonzalez, a very wide-open style, with a lot of quickness and enriched with shooters and excellent passers, starting with point-forward Luke Sikma. In the German league Alba has won its first three games, the last one in Oldenburg last Sunday. Compared to the Villeurbanne game, Milan will have Shavon Shields back, but Naz Mitrou-Long and Gigi Datome, as well as Tommaso Baldasso, are still out. The game against Alba is the only one scheduled in Milan among the first five. Afterwards, Olimpia will play three times in a row on the road before returning to the Mediolanum Forum on November 3, to face Real Madrid. As a fact, it is also the first game of a cycle made up of four games in seven days or five in nine, counting the one in Venice at the end of next week. It therefore becomes an important hub for affecting the start of the season. EA7 Emporio Armani Milano-Alba Berlin will be played on Friday 14 October at 20:30 at the Mediolanum Forum.
REFEREES – Matej Boltauzer (Slovenia), Gytis Vilius (Lithuania), Uros Nikolic (Serbia).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We have the utmost respect for Alba Berlin, a team capable for many years, under Coach Aito first and now with Coach Gonzalez, to play well and to face this EuroLeague competition with a lot of spirit. Its players are very familiar with each other, while we have a lot of newcomers and getting to know each other is a process for us. It is a very complicated game against a team very good at moving ball and players. We are not capable to limit their points off offensive rebounds and fastbreak, it will be hard to get the outcome we want to achieve. However, we are very determined to play the best possible game.”
JOHANNES VOIGTMANN – “Alba is a team very good at moving the ball, the play fast, they play well together and at this time they are also playing with a lot confidence. They have a clear and established system, they know what they want to do and how to do it well. We need to pay attention an try to take a step up.”
ALBA BERLIN – Alba Berlin has one the most outstanding features of the whole EuroLeague. It is the team that has changed the least during the summer. The most significant loss was that of Oscar Da Silva, the power forward who moved to Barcelona, while the significant additions are Gabriele Procida, a second-round pick of the Detroit Pistons, who had 12 points in his debut, and Yanni Wetzel. All the players of the “core group” are back: point guard Maodo Lo (11 points and six assists in the opener), the combo-guard Jaleen Smith, the forward Tim Schneider, the other forward Louis Olinde (he had a double double against Partizan), the center Johannes Thiemann, the big leaper Ben Lammers and team leader Luke Sikma (15 points, six rebounds, seven assists against Partizan). There are also the Israeli playmaker Tamir Blatt (spectacular in the debut, 16 points with 4-for-8 from three), the 2.24 mt center Christ Koumadije, who last year played 21 games only but shot around 70 percent from the field, small forward Yovel Zoosman, the shooter Jonas Mattiseck, the emerging talent Malte Delow and Marcus Eriksson, the Swedish shooter. Delow and Eriksson are out with injuries.
ALBA CONNECTION – Maodo Lo played at Bamberg with Nicolò Melli and together they won the German championship. Deshaun Thomas at Maccabi played alongside Yavel Zoosman. In Barcelona, he also played along Marcus Eriksson. Gabriele Procida, in his first season in Berlin, last season was playing for Fortitudo Bologna along Tommaso Baldasso.
GAME NOTES – Nicolò Melli passed the 1,800-career points threshold in Villeurbanne. He has 1,806 now. He is two offensive rebounds away from 300 in his career (he is in 25th place all-time). The Olimpia captain has captured 892 defensive rebounds in his career and has just passed Viktor Khryapa as 8th ever, 10 rebounds shy of Mirsad Turkcan’s 7th place. He also overtook Kerem Gonlum in the all-time 13th place for total rebounds, 1,190 now. Shavon Shields has scored at least one three in nine of his last 10 games. He is also 16 points behind Alessandro Gentile as fifth best scorer in Olimpia’s EuroLeague history, 809 to 825. Billy Baron has scored more than one three in 10 of his last 11 EuroLeague appearances. Johannes Voigtmann is nine rebounds away from 1,000 in his career. Kevin Pangos has scored at least one three in all of the last 29 EuroLeague games that he has played. Pangos is seven points shy of 1,500 for his career.
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