The third consecutive double round, the second entirely spent on the road, is a little different because it will be all played in Istanbul, so Olimpia will stay for most of the week in the Turkish capital. The first game is against Fenerbahce in the Asian area of the city. Obviously, it is the “Gigi Datome Day” after his five years spent with the yellow and blue jersey. Olimpia enters in this game after winning in Khimki and losing, but after practically leading up to three minutes remaining, in Barcelona. Olimpia is 3-3 on the road, Fenerbahce have lost five of their last six game, but now have a favorable schedule with three out of the next four games at home. In addition, after suffering a few injuries, it has recovered Nando De Colo, one of the greatest EuroLeague scorers, and one of the cornerstones of the team along with Jan Vesely and Ali Muhammed.
OLIMPIA – Even after the defeat in Barcelona, it is second for offensive production with 82.5 points per game and first in three-point shooting, 41.3 percent. Olimpia faces a very different team, which is struggling to score, 73.1 points per game and is allowing 11.9 offensive rebounds per game. Milan has lost two of the last three, but in all three of those games, it didn’t have Sergio Rodriguez (12.8 points, 4.7 assists per game). Shavon Shields has made 13 of his last 18 threes, during the last five games and is fifth overall for steals. Kevin Punter, the team leading scorer, is coming off his first single-digit game after returning from an early season injury. Malcolm Delaney is coming off his season-high of 23 points in Barcelona and has hit the last 16 free throws attempted.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “As always, going on the road, this is a very difficult EuroLeague game, against a deep, athletic team with a lot of different tactical solution available. Obviously, for us it’s a moment made more complicated by the schedule. We never have enough rest between a game and the next one. However, against a high-level Fenerbahce team, we need to pay great attention to detail and to display the cohesiveness we have had for the most part of the season so far.”
GIGI DATOME – “I return to a place I called home for five marvelous years. I’m very disappointed that no fans will be allowed in the arena, unfortunately, but maybe that will make easier for me to focus on the game and the difficult job we have to do against Fenrbahce. For us it’s really important to restart from the good things we have done lately.”
THE REFEREES – Daniel Hierrezuelo (Spain), Fernardo Rocha (Portugal), Mario Majkic (Slovenia).
FENERBAHCE – After the defeat in Berlin, Fenerbahce lost in the Turkish league to Karsiyaka, allowing 35 points in the last quarter, but had controlled the game so far. Lorenzo Brown, with the Red Star team last year, is averaging 11.5 points with 4.4 assists and is fourth overall in steals with 1.54 per game. As a point-guard he is backed by veteran Ali Muhammed (formerly known as Bobby Dixon) who is shooting the lights out (47.9 percent) from three. Nando De Colo is producing 11.6 points per game, he is the best ever in the EuroLeague in free throws and is recovering from an injury. The other guards are Leo Westermann and Mehli Mahmutoglu. Another outstanding shooter is Jarrell Eddie, 46.3 percent from the arc. Former Sassari standout, Dyshawn Pierre plays mostly at the small forward spot. Edgaras Ulanovas arrived from Zalgiris in the summer. Then the frontline includes in addition to Vesely (the team best shot-blocker and rebounder), Johnny Hamilton, Danilo Barthel and Ahmet Duverioglu. The coach is experiencing his first EuroLeague season, but Igor Kokoskov won the European championship with Slovenia and was a head coach in Phoenix in the NBA.
FENERBAHCE CONNECTION – Gigi Datome played at Fenerbahce for five seasons with four appearances at the EuroLeague Final Four and the European title won in 2017. Datome played 149 EuroLeague games in the yellow and blue, scoring 1,538 points. He has also won the Turkish title three times and the Turkish Cup three times. In 2016 he was MVP of the Turkish championship series. Sergio Rodriguez, Kyle Hines and Nando De Colo played together with CSKA Moscow, winning the EuroLeague in 2019. They also played with Leo Westermann for one year at CSKA. Fenerbahce’s general manager Maurizio Gherardini worked with Ettore Messina in Treviso.
NOTES – Gigi Datome has an open streak of 23 free throws made. Sergio Rodriguez has scored at least one three in 21 of his last 22 appearances and has gone into double figures in the evaluation in nine of the last 10 games played. Kevin Punter has scored a three in each of his last 19 EuroLeague games.
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