Olimpia, fresh from a very demanding and intense week, in which it met Olympiacos and Real Madrid and then closed with another tough road game in Tortona, will stay on the road, this time to Berlin. Alba is 0-4 in the EuroLeague, but it is a deceptive record because so far, they have played three out of four games on the road and the only time they played at home, against Baskonia, they were in contention until the end. It is a historically treacherous team, because it plays at a high pace, is aggressive, deep, and when it gets into rhythm Alba creates big problems to the opponents. In the German league, they are coming off a home win against Vechta, a game in which they started stuttering, slipping 23-6 down, only to re-emerge unequivocally and win clearly. Coach Israel Gonzalez rested veteran shooter Matt Thomas. Matteo Spagnolo was the team’s leading scorer with 18 points and five assists. Alba will feel the urgency of winning after four defeats and Olimpia will have to match this predictable intensity. Compared to last week, Maodo Lo, who spent the last three years in Berlin, his city, should be available to lend a hand, and Nikola Mirotic, who didn’t play in the Italian league game, will be available again. So, a few more options will be available to Coach Ettore Messina. For Maodo Lo it will be the appearance number 200 for his EuroLeague career. Tip off time on Thursday, 26, is at 20:00.
REFEREES – Emilio Perez (Spain), Igor Dragojevic (Montenegro), Denis Hadzic (Croatia).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “Alba Berlin, under Coach Gonzalez, has always been able to play with an aggressive and athetic roster, they like to play uptempo and force a lot of turnovers. This is an area where we need to improve, so it will be important for us to move the ball efficiently and, defensively. contain their one on one plays. It is an interesting game because Maodo Lo is coming home and will be finally available for us, and also because it is intriguing for us to face two young Italian prospets like Gabriele Procida and Matteo Spagnolo”.
JOHANNES VOIGTMANN – “It doesn’t matter who is playing for Alba, they don’t depend on individual players, they have had the same system for years, they play hard, they play aggressively, they play fast and make sure it is always difficult for everybody to take the win from them, especially in Berlin. So, we have to stay focused, play hard for 40 minutes, and be ready for a tough night.”
ALBA BERLIN OUTLOOK – There are four newcomers in Alba Berlin compared to last season: guard Sterling Brown (11.2 points per game) has played 248 NBA games in his career; the point guard Matteo Spagnolo, an Italian international in the World Cup, is a rookie in the EuroLeague averaging (8.2 points and 2.2 assists) but last season he produced 11.8 points per game in the Eurocup in Trento; the shooter Matt Thomas (8.8 points per game, 44.4 percent from three) made his EuroLeague debut at Panathinaikos last season; forward Justin Bean, who graduated in 2022 from Utah State, was in the G-League in Memphis last year. Among those returning stand out the small forward Tim Schneider (7.7 points per game), power forward Louis Olinde (10.2 points per game, 69.2 percent on twos, 38.5 percent on threes), in his fourth season in Berlin; and center Johannes Thiemann who is averaging 11.2 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, shooting close to 42 percent from three. Among the others: Gabriele Procida, Malte Delow, and center Kresimir Nikic. Alba have not yet able to use shooter Marcus Eriksson, center Yann Wetzell and other center Khalifa Koumadije due to injuries.
HISTORY VS. ALBA BERLIN – In today’s version of the EuroLeague, Olimpia has met Alba eight times with a 4-4 record that becomes 5-5 if we include the 2015/16 Eurocup. The history of the game, however, has its roots in 1995 when Olimpia and Alba faced each other in the Korac Cup final. Berlin won an international title for the first time in its history, winning at home 95-87 and tying in Milan 87-87. The two teams also faced each other in the 1996/97 edition of the old Euroleague: Alba won in Milan 91-80; Olimpia made up for it in the return game by conquering the win in Berlin 78-68. If we therefore consider all the games played between the two teams the record becomes 6-7-1; 3-4 in Berlin; 3-3-1 in Milan.
ALBA BERLIN CONNECTION – Maodo Lo has played three years for Alba Berlin, winning the German championships twice. In the EuroLeague he played 86 games for Alba with 998 points scored. Maodo Lo, Johannes Voigtmann and Johannes Thiemann are all World Champions with Germany. Procida and Spagnolo were Melli, Ricci and Tonut’s teammates with the Italian national team in the World Cup. Spagnolo played along Diego Flaccadori in Trento.
OLIMPIA NOTES – The 53 points allowed to Olympiacos last week are Olimpia’s fifth best defensive performance in the EuroLeague history. The record is 43 points allowed to Fenerbahce in the 2021/22 season. Three times Olimpia allowed 51 points (to Bayern in 2020/21; to Oldenburg in the 2009/10 season and to Olympiacos in the 2013/14 season). In 2011/12, Charleroi also scored 53 points against Olimpia.
KYLE HINES NOTES – Kyle Hines has played 113 European games for Olimpia so far, fourth overall behind Kaleb Tarczewski, Nicolò Melli and Vlado Micov (115). Besides, he is nine defensive rebounds away from getting 1,000 for his career, a milestone surpassed by only six players so far, the last of which was Nicolò Melli. Meanwhile, he became the all-time leader for games played in the EuroLeague with 394, six appearances shy of 400 for his career.
NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – The countdown is incessant: Nicolò Melli is seven appearances away from reaching Kaleb Tarczewski’s 156 as the All-Time leader for games played in the EuroLeague with Olimpia. With the next defensive rebound, he will put Ante Tomic behind him for good and will be the sole holder of the fifth place All-Time in the ranking. The fourth place belongs to Georgios Printezis with 1,065, 40 rebounds ahead of the Olimpia captain.
NIKOLA MIROTIC NOTES – Mirotic has just reached 3,242 points scored in his career, overtaking Paulius Jankunas and climbing to 10th place All-Time. Mirotic’s rating of 38 in Istanbul is one point lower than his career high of 39, which dates back to Round 14 of the 2021/22 season when he played for Barcelona against Real Madrid. In that game he also set the record for points scored with 31. In the history of Olimpia, the 38 rating is the third performance ever after the 47 of Samardo Samuels (2014/15 in Nizhny Novgorod) and the 41 of Shavon Shields (2020/21 against Bayern Munich, Game 5 of the playoffs). Mike James and Sergio Rodriguez follow with a 37 game each.
SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – Shields is two points shy of 1.500 for his career, 929 points of them have been scored for Olimpia, the all-time fourth-best in club’s history behing Bob McAdoo, Vlado Micov and Sergio Rodriguez. All of them are 1.000-point scorers.
JOHANNES VOIGTMANN NOTES – Johannes Voigtmann’s 21 points in Istanbul are his high in Olimpia (19 last year in Bologna) and the most since Round 10 of the 2021/22 season when he scored again 21 at Barcelona while playing for CSKA Moscow.
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