Olimpia Milano in Vitoria with Shields and Tonut

Olimpia will try to extend the momentum built by beating Partizan, in Vitoria. Baskonia, who defeated Alba Berlin at home in the last round, is firmly sitting in the play-in area where, however, every single position is better than the next. For the Basque team this is a crucial game, equally for Olimpia. It is also a game with many implications within a delicate week in which Olimpia will then go to Venice before another EuroLeague double round which will begin in Monte Carlo and will end at home against Fenerbahce. The two coaches, Ettore Messina and Dusko Ivanovic, met each other in the first EuroLeague final in history in 2001 and the Montenegrin coach was already in Vittoria then, a place where he’s coached in four distinct moments of his career. Shavon Shields played two years in Vitoria, winning the Spanish title in 2020. Other former players of the two teams are Jo Voigtmann on one side and Jordan Theodore on the other. Shields did not play in the last round of the Italian league in Bologna but should be able to play in Vitoria where Olimpia will also have Stefano Tonut available again (Alex Poythress is still out, Pippo Ricci had an injury in practice and didn’t make the trip). Baskonia is going through a great period of form as they demonstrated by beating Barcelona at home in the league with a monstrous performance from their shooter Markus Howard (37 points). It is a team with a lot of offensive potential that often uses Howard and Chima Moneke, the top two scorers, off the bench. Olimpia won the first game between these two teams through a monstrous defensive performance, holding Baskonia to 67 points, the Basque team’s second worst figure of the season. The attempt to win at the Buesa Arena starts from here. Tip-off time will be at 20:30 on Thursday.

COACH ETTORE MESSINA – "We play one more game with an incomplete roster, however we play to stay in the competition and we’ll approach this game as a final. Baskonia is coming off a big win over Barcelona in the Spanish league and it is an uptempo team who can easily create three-point shooting opportunities. So, we’ll need to play a solid, high-level defense and to combine it with a well-balanced offense in order to keep them from establishing their transition offense."

BASKONIA OUTLOOK – The most dangerous player is Markus Howard, the second-best scorer in the EuroLeague (18.3 points per game, preceded only by Mike James) and first for made threes (3.6 per game, ahead of Shavon Shields), who has started in 14 out of 28 games and in terms of playing time he is the fifth player on the team coached by Dusko Ivanovic. The starting point guard is Codi Miller-McIntyre, in his first EuroLeague season, who is producing 8.2 points, 7.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game. Among the guards, the Serbian international Vanja Marinkovic also stands out (11.1 points per game) shooting 38.2 percent on threes. Finally, Jordan Theodore, who arrived six games ago, is bringing a quality contribution to the team (6.0 points, 62.5 percent from two, 40.0 percent from three). The wingers are Dani Diez (3.2 points on average, 43.2 percent from three) and the Lithuanian Tadas Sedekerskis, a very effective player, 9.8 points with 68.9 shooting from two, 45.7 from three, and 6.9 rebounds per game. The Greek Nikolaos Rogkavopoulos is a pure shooter (55.0 percent from three, 5.2 points on average in less than 13 minutes) and Ivanovic also uses Sander Raieste sometimes even in the starting five. The other power forward, who has starter-caliber minutes, is Chima Moneke, 25.2 minutes per game with 14.3 points, 6.9 rebounds per outing and is shooting 61.7 percent from two. The centers are the Estonian Maik Kotsar (6.1 points and 3.4 rebounds on average) and Matt Costello (8.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, 60.0 percent two-point shooting). The third center, Khalifa Diop, is injured.

HISTORY VS. BASKONIA – Olimpia slightly leads the all-time series 13-11. In Milan, it is 10-3 Olimpia, on the road it is 3-8. Milan has prevailed three times in Vitoria, the first took place during the 2013/14 season, 83-65 with 17 points scored by Curtis Jerrells; in 2017/18, Olimpia won 83-82 with 16 points each for Andrew Goudelock and Jordan Theodore, who made the winning drive; and finally during the 2021/22 season it was a 78-64 win with 12 points and 10 rebounds by Shavon Shields, 13 points were scored by Malcolm Delaney and 12 by Devon Hall. The two teams split the games last season. Olimpia prevailed 76-67 in the Milan game, thanks to 21 points scored by Nicolò Melli, 19 and 12 rebounds accumulated by Johannes Voigtmann. This match-up lately has been heavily favorable to the home team who won 15 of the last 18 games.

THE BASKONIA CONNECTION – Shavon Shields has spent two seasons in Vitoria, winning the Liga in 2020. Overall, he has played 59 EuroLeague games with 569 points scored. He also took part in 63 Spanish league games with 711 points scored. Johannes Voigtmann has played three seasons in Vitoria with 100 appearances in the EuroLeague and 876 points scored. Assistant coach Peppe Poeta was a player for Vitoria during the 2013/14 season. Coach Ettore Messina won his 2001 EuroLeague when in Bologna defeating Baskonia in the championship series, already coached by Dusko Ivanovic. Finally, newcomer Jordan Theodore was part of the Olimpia team during the 2017/18 season.

NICOLO’ MELLI NOTES – Nicolò Melli climbed the chart of the all-time defensive rebounders in the EuroLeague, surpassing Georgios Printezis and Felipe Reyes. Melli now boasts 1,106 defensive rebounds, 58 less than Ioannis Bourosis, who was his teammate for two years at Olimpia. Melli is also eighth in total rebounds with 1,472: he has surpassed Georgios Printezis.

SHAVON SHIELDS NOTES – Shields is the Olimpia leader in the EuroLeague with 1.271 points scored. All-time, he is trailing only Bob McAdoo’s 1.292 points scored. He is just 21 points away to make history. Over the last 16 EuroLeague games, he has made at least two three-pointers 15 times and 11 times he had at least three. He’s become also the third ever Olimpia player to have at least 200 EuroLeague assists, after Sergio Rodriguez and Vlado Micov. On top of it, he has 164 made threes, five behind the all-time leader Sergio Rodriguez (169) and four less than Vlado Micov’s 168.