Olimpia’s winning streak in the EuroLeague, which reached five games – or seven of the last eight – will be put to the hardest test at the Palau Blaugrana on Friday night. Barcelona has the same record, 8-6, and a slightly worse point-difference, but they have played eight road games, two in the past week, and have won four of them. They are coming off a road win over Maccabi and – before that – a defeat practically at the end against Panathinaikos in Athens. In these games they had the same roster that will face Olimpia. Of the four players out, one – Raul Neto – is actually Nicolas Laprovittola’s replacement; the others are guard Dario Brizuela and Chimezie Metu. Olimpia will have Leandro Bolmaro back for this night after four games out: for him it is a special games because Barcelona was his first European hometown and the place where he was raised as a player. The continuing absence of Josh Nebo will force the other big men to make an additional effort, well aware that there will be a physical deficit when Coach Messina will use Mirotic and LeDay together.
Looking at the numbers, it should be an offensive game: in terms of points scored, Olimpia is second (87.9), Barcelona is fourth (86.4), as well as first in assists and steals, indicative of a team that knows how to hit in transition as the team’s 57.2 percent on twos is demonstrating. In the last six games in which Olimpia scored at least ten threes and did so with at least 40 percent shooting, they have always won; when Olimpia scored at least 85 points it is 7-1 with the only defeat coming in Berlin in which the final score was affected by the overtime. For Nikola Mirotic it is the most emotional games of the year. He played four years in Barcelona, winning two Spanish championships, the last – in 2023 – as playoff’s MVP. He reached the Final Four three times. Since he left in the summer of 2023 he has never played at Palau: last year he was out due to injury. Now, he comes in front of his former fans as the first EuroLeague player in personal rating, as the second-best scorer and third-best rebounder. During the winning streak he has 21.6 points per game; 46.7 percent three-point shooting; 84.8 percent from the free-throw line; 7.4 rebounds on average; and an amazing 28.4 of personal rating.
THE REFEREES – Mehdi Difallah (France), Milan Nedovic (Serbia), Thomas Bissuel (France).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are facing a very high level opponent so it is obviously a very difficult game. For us, the defensive transition phase and controlling rebounds against their big men and physically imposing line-ups, will be very important. Offensively, we need to have good ball circulation against a team that is used to generate steals and to use them to fuel their fastbreaks. As always, we are happy to meet Kevin Punter, because he is a player of whom we have great memories and of whom we are very fond of.”
NIKOLA MIROTIC – “For me personally it will a special game and a special night. I’m coming back in a place I consider home for the first time after more than 500 days so I anticipate a night full of emotions. At the same time, we have an important game and we’ll try to win against an obviously great and very competitive team.”
BARCELONA OUTLOOK – After the injury suffered by Nicolas Laprovittola, Barcelona attempted to replace him with the Brazilian (ex-NBA, 435 games players, four years spent in Utah) Raul Neto, but he got injured too and will not be available against Olimpia. The point guards are therefore Tomas Satoransky (4.7 points and 4.1 assists per game), another former NBA player (388 appearances mostly in Washington), and Juan Nunez, coming from Ulm but raised in Real Madrid, who has 5.9 points and 3.3 assists per game. Another option was the international Dario Brizuela (6.3 points per game) but he is also out with an injury. The starting guard is Kevin Punter, 14 appearances out of 14 in the line-up, 26 minutes of average playing time, 16.1 points per game on 41.1 percent three-point shooting. At the small forward there is the shooter Alex Abrines, a Spanish veteran (174 games played over three years in Oklahoma City), who averages 5.6 points per game on 40.0 percent three-point shooting. The other option is Justin Anderson (242 NBA appearances), who was in Valencia last season, a physical player who averages 6.2 points per game on 65.6 percent shooting on twos and 39.1 percent on threes. The former second pick of the 2014 NBA draft (then 310 appearances in the league), Jabari Parker, like Punter, has always started so far. In his second season in Barcelona, he averages 14.2 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, shooting 60.2 percent on twos. The back-up is Chimezie Metu, another former NBA player (six years, 260 games played), but he is injured (he had 7.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game). The centers are Jan Vesely (10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per night; he shoots 57.4 percent from two), one of the greatest EuroLeague players of the last decade after 162 NBA games, and Willy Hernangomez, a Spanish international, 344 NBA games under his belt, a great low post scorer (7.7 points on average in less than 14 minutes on the court, 69.2 percent from two). Joel Parra is another international who can help the team both as a power forward and as a center. Of note is the presence of eight players with over 100 NBA appearances on the roster.
THE BARCELONA CONNECTION – Nikola Mirotic played four EuroLeague seasons with Barcelona with 127 appearances, all of them as a starter, three Final Fours, 2,136 points scored, 16.8 points per game on average. Leandro Bolmaro was brought to Europe from Argentina by Barcelona: in the EuroLeague, he’s played 36 games with 99 points. Kevin Punter who is playing in Barcelona this year has played one season at Olimpia winning a Super Cup, an Italian Cup and reaching the 2021 Final Four. He played 36 games in the EuroLeague with 515 points scored.
MIROTIC NOTES – Nikola Mirotic has made at least one triple in 10 of his last 11 games played and two or more in nine of the last 10. With an average of 23.7 per game he is first overall for personal rating; with 18.7 points per game, he is the third-best scorer, and with 7.4 he is the third-best rebounder in the competition. Mirotic has scored at least 20 points seven times this season and 14 times since being at Olimpia. In his last 13 games, he has scored at least 13 personal rating points. Mirotic is eight defensive rebounds away from 1,000 for his career. Before him, 11 players reached this threshold.
LEDAY NOTES – Zach LeDay, with 20.1 per game, is seventh overall in rating; with 15.6 he is the tenth scorer overall and is third for fouls drawn (6.1). Besides, with 52.4 percent he is second in three-point shooting. This season he has scored in double figures in 13 of 14 games. LeDay has had at least a 16 rating in his last eight games.
CAUSEUR NOTES – The six threes that he made against Red Star are his new career record. At 55.2 percent, he jumped to first place overall in three-point shooting. The 20 points are a season record. His last twenty-point game dates back to the 2021/22 season, Game 1 of the playoffs against Maccabi. On that occasion he hit 4-for-6 from three. Causeur is also third overall in steals with 1.4 per game.
MANNION NOTES – Against Red Star, he set four career records, i.e. points scored (20), rating (21), two (four) and three (four) baskets during the same game. Mannion has scored at least 10 points five times since joining Olimpia and the team is 5-0 in those games.
GAME NOTES – Shavon Shields is five two-pointers away from 500 career two-point field goals. He has surpassed the 2,000 points scored threshold already. Armoni Brooks has hit at least one three-pointer in each of his last eight games. Leandro Bolmaro enters this game fifth in steals with 1.3 per game. For the second time in the EuroLeague era, Olimpia had three players with 20 or more points in the same game (the one vs Red Star). It happened in the 2018/19 season in a 106-104 victory in Gran Canaria. Vlado Micov scored 24 points, Mike James and James Nunnally 22. But that game ended after overtime. Against Red Star: 23 Mirotic, 20 Causeur and Mannion but all in 40 minutes.
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