Not just a Final 4 revenge, Olimpia and Barcelona are leading Euroleague on the eve of their battle

At the end of the last season Olimpia-Barcelona was one of two EuroLeague semifinals, therefore, on Thursday 4 November two of the teams returning from the Final Four in Cologne will face each other and on top of that, the same teams are at the top of the standings. Both suffered the first loss just last week, during the so-called "double week". Barcelona won in Istanbul with Fenerbahce and then lost in Tel Aviv. Olimpia lost to Bayern in Munich and then beat the Red Star at home. However, no one managed to catch them at the top of the list. Besides, both are sitting first and unbeaten in their respective national leagues.

Records and margins – Both have a 6-1 record and an incredible +51 point difference. Olimpia scored 546 points and allowed 495. Barcelona scored 549 points, allowing 498. Barcelona won two games by a single possession, against Olympiacos at home and against Fenerbahce on the road (thanks to a buzzer beating circus shot made by Nikola Mirotic). Barcelona won also a four-point game with AS Monaco. Olimpia won by one with Asvel and by four points with Efes but after protecting a more relevant margin.

Defense – Olimpia is 6-0 when holding its opponents under 80 points scored and 0-1 when not. So far it allows 71.14 points per game and is fifth overall, Barcelona allows two points per game more. Apart from the numerical data of the points allowed, Olimpia is the best so far at defending inside the arc (it allows 49.79 percent two-point shooting to the opponents against the 51.07 percent that Barcelona is allowing) and it is first in assists allowed, only 12.57 (15.57 those of Barcelona). Moreover, Milan is allowing a 30.17 percent three-point shooting, a sign that defending strong inside has not precluded the protection of the perimeter so far. However, Barcelona averages 7.71 steals per game, two more than Olimpia.

Offense – Barcelona comes to Milan leading the EuroLeague in points scored, 81.14 per game (Olimpia averages 78.43 points, fourth overall), taking advantage of the shooters’ ability. By shooting with 39.47 percent from three, Barca is second overall, while Olimpia is fifth at 36.76 percent. Milan has dished more assists during the first seven games, but the difference is marginal (18.14 against 17.86, they are, in fact, third and fourth overall), and above all it has protected the ball better, averaging 11.14 turnovers per game against 14.00. Barcelona instead is better at shooting free-throws. The Blaugrana have converted 84.75 percent of their freebies, Olimpia only 71.31 percent.

Top scorers – No Olimpia player has ever reached the 20-point plateau in a single game. So far, it has always been about a collective effort. Shavon Shields is the top scorer with 12.7 points per game, but the second scorer would have been the injured Malcolm Delaney. For Barcelona, ​​Nikola Mirotic averages 16.3 points per game and Brandon Davies adds 13.6. Cory Higgins has also a double figure average, 11.4 per game.

Top shooters – Milan has four players shooting over 40 percent from three, Devon Hall (48.3 percent), Troy Daniels (42.3 percent), Gigi Datome (42.1 percent) and Pippo Ricci (40.0 percent). The inside game is relying mostly on Nicolò Melli, Kyle Hines and Dinos Mitoglou, all around 60 percent shooting. For Barcelona, ​​the usual Mirotic (63.4 percent from two, 46.4 percent from three), Kyle Kuric (44.4 percent from three), Brandon Davies (62.1 percent from two) stand out. Nicolas Laprovittola is also shooting at 43.5 percent from three.

Best rebounders – Within the Olimpia team there are no surprises because the best rebounders are the bigs, led by Kyle Hines (5.7), Nicolò Melli (5.4) and Dinos Mitoglou (4.9). But Barcelona’s best rebounder is the atypical point guard Nick Calathes (5.6 per game). The second-best is Mirotic (5.3).

Best passers – Sergio Rodriguez averaging 4.4 assists per game leads Olimpia, but Shavon Shields is also a 3.0-assist per game passer, while Devon Hall has dished four assists total during the first five games, but 12 in the last two in which he has played mainly as a point guard. Calathes is first in the whole EuroLeague with a 5.4 average.

Calathes-Rodriguez – The second and third players in the EuroLeague history in assists are facing each other in a sort of battle between legends. Calathes enters this game two points shy of 2,500 points for his career, while Chacho is the sixth-best scorer in history as well as the third-best for three-pointers made. Rodriguez is shooting 63.2 percent from two, a career-high, but by improving his floater he had reached the 60 percent plateau last season too. Calathes has never been a pure shooter, but he is converting 40.9 percent of his three and is 7-for-8 from the line, after seven straight seasons of never reaching the 60-percent plateau.

Notes – Shavon Shields and Nicolò Melli have started every game. Nikola Mirotic has just been named Player of the Month for October. He and Cory Higgins have started every game, Nick Calathes has done so six times out of seven. The current Barcelona players used 79.9 percent of the team’s total minutes last season, so continuity is huge for them.

Players missing – Alex Abrines in Barcelona, 6.1 points per game and 42.3 percent shooting from three last season, is going to miss the game. However, he still has to debut this season. In Olimpia there will be no Riccardo Moraschini and Malcolm Delaney, the latter started five out of seven games and averaged 12.7 points per outing in the last four games that he played, He had also an astronomical +8.2 average plus/minus.