Olimpia faces a tough Zenith team, Messina: defense and ball movement crucial for us

This EuroLeague double home round is moving to the game to be played against the only team that has won more road games than Olimpia, Zenit St. Petersburg (eight wins) on Thursday 28th in Mediolanum Forum. Olimpia has won one more game than Zenit, but Zenit has played one game less. St. Petersburg is a team that allows just 73.8 points per game and 34.7 percent three-point shooting, so it is a bit at the opposite spectrum of Milan. Olimpia in fact averages 82.4 points per game and is shooting 42.5 percent from three-point distance. Olimpia has won the last five EuroLeague games, Zenit five of the last seven. In the last round, Olimpia defeated Olympiacos while Zenit lost the battle for the first place in Barcelona. Kevin Punter, after interrupting his streak of 26 games with at least one three made, responded by setting his career highs in points (27) and assists (five) against Olympiacos.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – "We face the second-best EuroLeague defense, a very efficient one because of their meticulous tactical preparation and the many adjustment made, based on their opponents. Offensively, Zenit is a very disciplined team under Kevin Pangos’ watch. Defending the pick and roll well and ball movement offensively will certainly be two crucial aspects of our game, in order to try to win an obviously difficult game."

RICCARDO MORASCHINI – "We meet a team who’s won a lot of games, especially on the road, a tough team, equipped with a high-caliber defense. From our part, we are playing well, but entering into this game will be crucial to be ready for a 40-minute battle, a physical one, paying great attention to detail while making sure to play with great intensity."

THE REFEREES – Juan Carlos Garcia (Spain), Robert Lottermoser (Germany), Milan Nedovic (Serbia).

ZENIT – Zenit St. Petersburg has started a series of four consecutive road games in Barcelona. The team has won five of its last seven games and is the team that has won the most road games, eight, the main reason why it is placed so high in the standing. The point guard is Kevin Pangos, a former Zalgiris and Barcelona floor general, ​​who is scoring 11.7 points per game as well as distributing 6.1 assists per game. Austin Hollins normally starts as a guard (he is shooting 90.9 percent from the line), at the small forward spot there’s the Polish Mateusz Ponitka (8.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists per game), at power forward there is the left-handed Will Thomas (8.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 43.2 percent from three), and at center there’s Arturas Gudaitis (10.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game). Off the bench are coming the shooters Billy Baron (43.4 percent from three), the veteran KC Rivers (6.5 points per game) and Andrey Zubkov. The rotation includes the experienced Vitaly Fridzon and center Anton Pushkov, who had more playing time since the injury of Alex Poythress (9.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, 64.2 percent from two), who is making his EuroLeague debut, after four years at Kentucky and one at Galatasaray. Former Maccabi center Tarik Black was also taken to reinforce the frontcourt, but he has not been used, yet. Coach Javi Pascual is in his second season at St. Petersburg.

THE ZENIT CONNECTION – Arturas Gudaitis played for Olimpia for three seasons, winning the Italian league in 2018, and the Super Cup in 2017 and 2018. In the EuroLeague he boasts 69 appearances with 701 points scored and 416 rebounds grabbed. Kevin Pangos played for Barcelona along Malcolm Delaney even though he was injured and the two never shared the court. Billy Baron played alongside Kevin Punter with the Red Star. KC Rivers played with Zach LeDay at Zalgiris. Vitaly Fridzon played in CSKA Moscow with Vlado Micov and Kyle Hines and was coached by Ettore Messina. Tarik Black at Maccabi played with Michael Roll.

NOTES – Gigi Datome is third behind Kyle Kuric (Barcelona) and William Howard (Asvel) in three-point shooting on 56.5 percent. Zach LeDay is fourth at 53.8 percent. Olimpia as a team is first at 42.5 percent. Also, LeDay has hit a three in eight of his last nine games. Kevin Punter (the EuroLeague 8th-best scorer with 14.9 per game) has made at least one three in 27 of his last 28 EuroLeague games played and has gone into double figures in 21 of his last 23 games. Malcolm Delaney has scored at least one three in 16 consecutive games, has had at least one steal in 11 of his last 12 appearances. Shavon Shields is sixth in steals with 1.38 on average and is seventh in three-point shooting at 48.1 percent. He has a streak of 10 games with at least one three made and has had at least one steal in 13 of his last 14 appearances.

MORE NOTES – Kyle Hines is two blocks away from the second place ever in the EuroLeague currently held by Fran Vazquez. Sergio Rodriguez enters this game 21 points away from 3,000 for his career. Seven players before him crossed that milestone. Gigi Datome made his three-pointer number 300 of his career against Olympiacos, he is 23rd ever now, but among the top 50 he has the second-highest percentage (44.4 percent) behind Petteri Koponen. Malcolm Delaney has surpassed the 200 threes for his career against Olympiacos: he is converting 40.6 percent from three-point range over 101 overall EuroLeague appearances. Delaney is also 12 assists shy of 500 for his career.