The Astroballe game (on Friday 5, February) is a sort of last stop before the sprint that will lead to the EuroLeague playoffs. After the Villeurbanne game, the EuroLeague will stop for a week, before the last 10 regular season games (11 for Olimpia). The break – reserved for the national cups competition – includes a bye-week in the Italian League for Olimpia. When everything will resume, however, Milan will play three more EuroLeague games in a span of a week, Maccabi at home, St. Petersburg on the road (the game that was postponed) and Khimki at home. Right now, however, all the attention is on Villeurbanne. The French team has grown in recent weeks and is riding a four-game winning streak. In the span of these four games, Asvel has never allowed more than 78 points in a single game. Villeurbanne is now the fourth-best team in three-point shooting, thanks to the efficiency of two specialists such as William Howard and Antoine Diot. Asvel and Olimpia are the only teams to have two representatives among the top five three-point shooters of the entire EuroLeague. Asvel point guard Norris Cole, who has scored 42 points in the last two games, is another source of attention.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We face an extremely athletic team, a team that improved a lot since the beginning of the season, as witnessed by its four-game winning streak. Playing against this kind of athleticism, and against the great creativity of their guards, will be the main problems for us. We are missing important players, so we’ll need to play a very disciplined game, both offensively and defensively, in order to have the chance to win this game”.
MICHAEL ROLL – “We really need to come out focused and very aggressive, since they are an excellent team, with a lot of action offensively, and we need to stay on track and win as many games as possible on the road”.
THE REFEREES – Miguel Angel Perez (Spain), Saso Petek (Slovenia), Uros Obrknezevic (Serbia).
ASVEL VILLEURBANNE – Point guard Norris Cole, a former Miami Heat player, who played for Maccabi too, is the team’s leading scorer with 13.6 points per game, and is averaging 3.4 assists per game, converting 93.6 percent of his free throws (he made all the last 31 attempted). He has an open streak of 10 games with at least one made three. Swingman David Lighty, who has been with Asvel for six years, averages 11.2 points per game and is shooting over 90 percent from the line. 2.18 mt center Moustapha Fall is another key player, who is averaging 8.9 points per game, 5.2 rebounds, and is shooting 71.1 percent from the field. However, Asvel is a deep team. Forward Guerschon Yabusele, formerly with the Boston Celtics, averages 9.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Veteran Antoine Diot is a point guard who is shooting 48.3 percent from three. Recently, point-man Derrick Walton Jr has been added to the team, but he missed the last game due to an injury. Other rotation players are Paul Lacombe, a veteran shooting guard, Ismael Bako (4.5 points, 3.1 rebounds per game), Kevarrius Hayes, Charles Kahudi (6.5 points, shooting 41.3 percent from three, but he won’t be available because of an injury), Amine Noua (5.8 points per game) and the shooting ace William Howard, who is averaging 7.9 points per game in less than 16 minutes, while shooting 57.6 percent from three. The very young and talented Matthew Strazel, 19, scored 29 points overall in the four-game winning streak the team has just put together.
THE ASVEL CONNECTION – Asvel president Tony Parker played in San Antonio for Ettore Messina. David Lighty in 2011/12 played in Cantù along Vlado Micov and Andrea Cinciarini. Michael Roll and Norris Cole played together for Maccabi in 2017/18.
NOTES – Gigi Datome is third behind Kyle Kuric (Barcelona) and William Howard (Asvel) in three-point shooting, converting 55.3 percent of his attempts. Zach LeDay is fourth, shooting 52.5 percent. Olimpia as a team is first shooting 42.7 percent from three-point distance. Kevin Punter (the league 8th-best scorer with 14.8 per game) has made at least one three in 28 of the last 29 EuroLeague games that he played and has gone into double figures in 22 of the last 24. Malcolm Delaney has made at least one three for 17 consecutive games and has had at least one steal in 12 of the last 13 games played. Finally, he is 10 assists shy of 500 for his career. Shavon Shields is ninth in steals, averaging 1.29 per game and sixth in three-point shooting, 48.2 percent. He has a streak of 11 games with at least one three made. Kaleb Tarczewski is an offensive rebound from 200 during his EuroLeague career. Kyle Hines enters this game two blocks away from Fran Vazquez’s 249 for the all-time second place.
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