Three tough road games are awaiting Olimpia right after the home date with Zalgiris Kaunas, on Thursday (tip off time: 20:30): Munich, Belgrade-Partizan and Barcelona. The schedule makes the Zalgiris game even more important than already is. Olimpias has won the last two EuroLeague games, Efes at home and red Star on the road. As a fact, Olimpia’s won three of its last four games, improving his position in the standings and making strides, from a statistical standpoint. Now, it is averaging 80.3 points per game, 86.4 over the last foru games including the close Bologna loss; three-point shooting is climbing up to 41.7 percent, second-best in the league, because of tho hot streak of at least three players, Shavon Shields, Maodo Lo and Nikola Mirotic. The bad news is: the only team shooting from three better than Olimpia is Zalgiris, with its five specialists (Evans, Dimsa, Smits, Lekavicius and Manek). A solid defensive game is required: Kaunas is shooting 42.6 percent on threes on 24.2 attempts per game (Olimpia is averaging 26.6 shots per game), but Milan is holding opponents to 35.8 percent. Generally, Olimpia is 4-1 when allowing less than 80 points, the only exception being the Monaco game at home. Zalgiris began the season on fire, winning three of its first four games, then lost five of the following six, the only win by one point against Bayern at home, but two losses came by a single possession, with Asvel and Panathinaikos. It is a team capable to take advantage of the opportunities, with an incredibile closer like Evans and a lot of shooters incuding the big Roland Smith, a power forward who can really open up the floor.
THE REFEREES – Ilija Belosevic (Serbia), Milivoje Jovcic (Serbia), Huseyin Celik (Turkey).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are coming off a contradictory week because our good Belgrade game was followed by a mediocre one in the Italian league and now we have the desire to play the best possible game, against a Zalgiris team featuring a lot of athleticism, a clear defensive identity and offensively the ability to use Ulanovas and Smits’ skills, beyond the leadership provided by Keenan Evans and Lekavicius. I expect a tough game against a team capable to play with the right attitude night in and night out. But we intend to keep advancing in this EuroLeague.”
NICOLO’ MELLI – “We want to prolong our good moment in the EuroLeague and this. being a home game, is much more important to win. We understand how difficult it will be, because Zalgiris is a tough team, they are very well organized, well coached and athletic. So, for us, we need to bring our best to the court.”
ZALGIRIS KAUNAS OUTLOOK – Zalgiris star is the American point guard Keenan Evans, formerly at Maccabi, whose season was broken by an injury last season, but came back with great energy and efficiency, single-handedly won the Bologna game, has always started and is averaging 15.5 points and 3.4 assists per game, while shooting 45.5 percent on threes. Coach Maksivytis has often changed the starting shooting guard, but the most frequent starter has been Tomas Dimsa (9.4 points per game, 41.5 percent three-point shooting), a deadeye shooter. The small forward is always the experienced left-handed Edgaras Ulanovas, who is playing almost 28 minutes per game, averaging 7.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. The bigs are always the Latvian Rolands Smits (12.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game), a highly efficient pick and pop artist (71.1 percent from two, 47.2 percent from three), and Kevarrius Hayes (6.3 points per game, 62.2 percent on twos). The most efficient players off the bench are the veteran point guard, Lekas Lekavicius, 5.2 points per game on average but 53.3 percent three-point shooting, and the American Brady Manek, 7.3 points per game, 46.2 percent on threes. Forward Arnas Butkevcius (4.7 points and 3.4 rebounds per game), center Laurynas Birutis (5.4 points and 3.1 rebounds per game) are completing the rotation along guard Dovydas Giedratitis. Zalgiris has just signed the NBA guard Edmond Sumner, bit he wont’ be available in Milan.
HISTORY VS. ZALGIRIS – The two teams faced each other 22 times with Zalgiris having a 12-11 advantage. The first game took place during the 1985/86 season, Zalgiris, led by the great Arvydas Sabonis, won 80-79 over Olimpia in Kaunas, but Milan took its revenge in Italy, dominating 95-66. The following season, when Olimpia was on its way to win the first of its two European championships, Milan defeated Zalgiris twice, 75-71 at home, 100-85 on the road when Sabonis was missing due to an injury. Zalgiris however won the Saporta Cup championship game in 1998 (82-67) in Belgrade. Olimpia has won four consecutive games between the teams, before both encounters during the last season.
KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines has become the first player ever to appear in 400 EuroLeague games. He is two rebounds away from reaching 1,000 defensive rebounds for his career, a milestone surpassed by only seven players so far, Nicolò Melli included. He is also eight rebounds shy of the second place all-time that currently belongs to Felipe Reyes.
NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – With the next appearance Nicolò Melli will pass Kaleb Tarczewski’s 156 games played as the All-Time leader for Olimpia in the EuroLeague. Meanwhile, he has put Ante Tomic behind him as the sole holder of fifth place All-Time in the defensive rebounds list. The fourth place belongs to Georgios Printezis with 1,065, 14 rebounds ahead of the Olimpia captain.
SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – 19 EuroLeague players are averaging at least five attempted threes per game. Among these 19, only five are converting over 40 percent. The best is Isaiah Canaan of Olympicos (53.3 percent), then there’s Shavon Shields, 46.6 percent on 5.8 attempts. The other three are Marco Belinelli (44.6 percent on 5.6 attempts), Mike James (43.1 percent on 6.5 attempts) and Nikola Mirotic (40.4 percent on 5.2 attempts).
SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES 2 – Over the last three games, Shavon Shields has scored 58 points (19.7 on average), with 12 rebounds (average: 4.0), 8-for-11 from two, 12-for-19 from three. Shields has career averages of 11.7 points and 11.8 index rating per game. This season: 16.0 points and 15.8 index rating per game.
SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES 3 – Shields surpassed 1,500 career points scored in Berlin; in Bologna, he surpassed the 1.000-point barrier scored for Olimpia, the third-most after Bob McAdoo and Vlado Micov.
MAODO LO NOTES – His 32 points and his 38 of index rating made in Belgrade are both career highs. His previous high-scoring game was against Olympiacos when he played for Alba Berlin, with 27. Lo is the 21st Olimpia player to have scored at least 30 points in EuroLeague or Champions’ Cup game. The club record belongs to Bob McAdoo and Paolo Vittori with 43. It was the 55th 30+ point performance by an Olimpia player. The 38 points of personal index rating are the third highest value after Samardo Samuels’ 47 (2014/15) and Shavon Shields’ 41 (2020/21).
MAODO LO NOTES 2 – Over the last four games, Maodo Lo has scored 66 points, 14-for-21 on threes, 16 assists, 4.0 on average, scoring in double digit in every game. Olimpia’s record since then: 3-1.
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