If Olimpia has won the last four EuroLeague games, tomorrow night’s opponent is going through an equally good moment having won the last two games including the first win in their history against Real Madrid. The fact that Paris Lee scored the winning basket says a lot. Asvel Villeurbanne’s point guard, a veteran in the EuroLeague, played the first few games then got injured and upon returning helped the team beat Efes and Real Madrid playing alongside Theo Maledon, a combo-guard who is having a break.out season after four marginal seasons in the NBA. With Nikola Mirotic and Maledon, two of the top three players for index rating in the entire EuroLeague will be on the court in Milan. As Coach Messina underlined after last Wednesday’s game, Asvel is an athletic team with a lot of firepower, just think of Nando De Colo himself, a legendary figure of the competition, the second best scorer ever, the best free-throw shooter in European history and perhaps more.
The one that awaits the big men will also be a demanding task: Asvel rotates three centres, Neal Sako who is himself a break.out player, a vertical guy; Tarik Black, who is a veteran, is a great and physical defender; Joffrey Lauvergne, who in addition to being extremely experienced, can also be dangerous as a shooter.
In the last four games, Olimpia has always played at a high level offensively, riding the Mirotic-LeDay combination and managing to raise the level of its defense every time it was needed. It did it without three of the most solid players in his own halfcourt such as Bolmaro (actually he played in Belgrade), Tonut and Nebo. The shooting accuracy and ball movement emphasized the offensive brilliance of the team. Everything will be needed and great defensive attention will be required against Asvel who was the best three-point shooting team in the EuroLeague before ceding the position to Olimpia, now the only team shooting over 40 percent on threes.
Tip-off time in Milan will be at 20:45 on Friday.
REFEREES – Milivoje Jovcic (Serbia), Anne Panther (Germany), Alberto Baena (Spain).
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – ““We face a very athletic team, well organized on offense around the talent of its guards and the excellent use of the pick and roll, and with a full court defense that knows how to be very aggressive. The theme of the game for us will be defense, to keep the pace high, and fast ball movement against their defense.”
ASVEL VILLEURBANNE OUTLOOK – Theo Maledon returned to France this year after four years spent in the NBA, the first three in Oklahoma City and then one between Charlotte and Brooklyn. In all, he played 177 games. Currently, he is the star of the French team, the only player who has always started, 13 times out of 13, sometimes as a point guard and sometimes as a shooting guard alongside Paris Lee, a EuroLeague veteran, who scored the winning basket against Real Madrid in the last round. Maledon is averaging 18.0 points per game on 38.5 percent shooting from three and 55.4 percent from two, but he is also dishing out 4.7 assists and grabbing 4.0 rebounds per game. Lee contributes 11.6 points on average, is shooting 44.0 percent from three, 3.8 assists. The other guards are Shaquille Harrison (5.8 points per game) and the great Nando De Colo (10.4 points and 5.1 assists per game), over 4,600 points scored in his career, second all-time after Mike James. David Lighty, another veteran in his sixth season in Villeurbanne, is normally the small forward of the starting line-up (6.1 points, 51.9 percent from three-point range). The alternative is Melvin Ajinca (2.2 points and 1.7 rebounds per game). Andre Roberson is the power forward after replacing Admiral Schofield who was released after playing six games, five of which in the starting five. Roberson is a 2.01 mt player who used to play guard in the NBA (307 games, 302 of which in Oklahoma City) and after the 2016/17 season was named to the all-defense second team. After a catastrophic injury, he failed in his bid to return first with the Thunder and then with Brooklyn, so this season he resumed his career in Cholet. After four French league game, he was signed by Asvel. In Europe he plays as a 4 but is still emphasizing his defensive qualities as in the crucial block made on Campazzo three days ago before Lee scored the winning basket. Currently, he has 3.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, 1.4 steals. Be careful though because in France he averages 13.5 points per game. Other options at the 4-spot are the veteran Charles Kahudi (3.8 points per game) and the Senegalese Mbaye Ndiaye (6.8 points and 2.6 rebounds on average). The centers are Neal Sako, a break-out, vertical player (9.4 points and 6.2 rebounds on average), who is shooting 61.3 percent from the field, and Joffrey Lauvergne who is having another high-level season, with 11.1 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, 59.1 percent on twos. Behind them, there is also Tarik Black (3.7 points per game on 69.6 percent shooting from the field). Multi-dimensional guard Edwin Jackson, another veteran, is out with an injury.
MIROTIC NOTES – Nikola Mirotic has made at least one three in 19 of his last 21 games played and made at least three threes in each of his last five outings. With an average of 23.8 per game he is first overall for personal rating; with 18.8 points per game, he is the second-best scorer behind Carsen Edwards of Bayern, and with 7.6 he is the second-best rebounder in the competition behind Edy Tavares of Real Madrid. Mirotic has scored at least 20 points seven times this season and 14 times since playing for Olimpia. In his last 12 games, he has scored at least 12 personal index rating points and has grabbed at least five rebounds in each of his last eight games. Mirotic is 10 defensive rebounds away from 1,000 for his career. Before him, 11 players reached this threshold. Furthermore, he just surpassed Sergio Rodriguez as the eighth scorer in history with 3,782 points.
LEDAY NOTES – Zach LeDay, with 19.9 per game, is seventh overall in rating; with 15.5 he is the tenth-best scorer overall and is second for fouls received (6.2) behind TJ Shorts (Paris Basketball) and tied with Theo Maledon of Asvel. Finally, with 56.8 percent he is first in three-point shooting. This season he has scored in double figures in 12 of 13 games. LeDay has had at least a 19 of personal rating in his last seven games. With the seven rebounds he captured against Red Star, he surpassed 800 for his career.
CAUSEUR NOTES – The six threes made against Red Star are his new career-high. At 55.6 percent, he jumped to second overall in three-point shooting behind Zach LeDay. The 20 points are a season record. His last twenty-point game dates back to the 2021/22 season, Game 1 of the playoffs against Maccabi. On that occasion he hit 4/6 from three-point range.
MANNION NOTES – Against Red Star, he set four career records, i.e. points scored (20), personal index rating (21), two-pointers (four) and three-pointers (four) during the same game.
GAME NOTES – Shavon Shields is five points away from 2,000 career points in the EuroLeague and five two-pointers away from 500 career goals. Armoni Brooks has hit at least one three-pointer in nine of his last ten games. With 47.8 percent, Pippo Ricci is tenth in three-point shooting. For the second time in the EuroLeague era, Olimpia had three players with 20 or more points in the same game. It happened in the 2018/19 season in a 106-104 win in Gran Canaria. Vlado Micov scored 24 points, Mike James and James Nunnally 22. But that game ended after overtime. Against Red Star: 23 Mirotic, 20 Causeur and Mannion but all in 40 minutes.
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