It is Game 2 time, coach Messina: An aggressive attitude and more pride are required

The European defending champions of Efes took possession of the series after a big Game 1 win in Milan. Now, it is Olimpia’s turn to respond and getting some momentum. During the first game, Olimpia was capable to hold Efes 19 points under its season average, struggling a little bit over Bryan Dunston in the beginning and later in the game on Shane Larkin’s quickness. But it wasn’t the defense to generate the loss: Efes shot under 43 percent from two and even its 9-for-23 three-point shooting was somewhat acceptable, like the 15 forced turnovers. Olimpia held its own in the rebounding battle, but the 17-for-55 shooting from the field was insurmountable. The margins for improvement are huge: Efes had a great defensive game, forced a lot of contested shots, but there have been open shots too, and they were missed. Just as a few examples: at the end of a promising first quarter, Pippo Ricci had a corner three to put the team ahead by eight; at the end of the second period, Devon Hall had a short jumper to close the gap to one point; and again, in the fourth, Malcolm Delaney had three free throws to close the margin to eight points, a big but not decisive gap yet. These are just small examples to understand how little mistakes, including the six free throws missed, undermined the offensive confidence of the team. Another problem was represented by the two quick fouls committed by Devon Hall, who had to stay on the court for 17 minutes, nine less than his season average. He was his season-low for minutes played over a 35-game span, when Gigi Datome absence kept Shavon Shields from playing at the 2-position. Now, it is resetting time entering into Game 2, even if Nicolò Melli will be unavailable too.

COACH MESSINA – “We are coming off our worst game of the year, so we’ll need to show a more aggressive attitude and more pride. We owe this to ourselves, to our fanbase and to our owners.”

THE REFEREES – Sasha Pukl (Slovenia), Olegs Latisevs (Latvia), Anne Panther (Germany).

GAME NOTES – Sergio Rodriguez is 25 points shy of 1.000 scored for Olimpia. Bob McAdoo (1.292) and Vlado Micov (1.232) are the only ones with more. Kaleb Tarczewski has 298 two-point field goals made, an all-time record for the team. Coach Ettore Messina will be coaching his 500th European club competitions game in his career, including the 78 games that he coached during the Fiba era and the 19 games he coached in other competitions. Nicolò Melli has grabbed at least five rebounds in 10 consecutive games. Kyle Hines is nine offensive rebounds shy of being the all-time leader in the playoffs (the current leader his Felipe Reyes).