It is a special game, the one scheduled to be played at the Unipol Forum on Thursday. It is always special when Real Madrid shows up in Milan, with its 11 EuroLeague championships won, the last one in 2023 which was followed by the championship game lost to Panathinaikos in 2024. The team coached by Chus Mateo is through a renewal time after the retirements of some legendary, historical figures, such as Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez, and the departure for the NBA of Guerschon Yabusele. Furthermore, it is dealing with some injuries, the latest being that of the Bosnian forward Dzanan Musa. Olimpia has similar problems: in the last round of the Italian league regular season, five players were out. Against Real Madrid, Nico Mannion, just taken from Varese, will be added. Neno Dimitrijevic (he had nine assists in his last outing, against Virtus Bologna) is available again. On the night dedicated to Sergio Rodriguez, Olimpia will have to pay homage to its great newly inducted Hall of Famer with a performance first and foremost full of energy and pride, especially with another grueling period of games coming up: with the game against Venice next Sunday at home and then a double round of EuroLeague entirely spent on the road, in Berlin and Belgrade-Partizan.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We face a great team while going through a difficult moment. The team is suffering due to many injuries and played a poor game last Sunday. In the last couple of days, we have tried to regain not only our physical energy but also confidence and determination. While waiting to have our full roster back, we must always compete and try to improve. If we do this, we will benefit from it not only in this game against Real Madrid but also in the following ones. The most important aspect is not to lose trust in each other when difficult moments come up.”
FABIEN CAUSEUR – “Real Madrid has some injuries to deal with, just like us, and this always makes everything more complicated due to the schedule that we have. When you have two or three players out it’s difficult to make up for it. They have injuries and we have injuries. We play at home, in front of our fans, and we must use this energy the way we did in the Bologna game. In that game there was great participation from the fans and great spirit. We will have to recreate it all for 40 minutes against a team that has a lot of talent and experience. For me obviously, after seven years, many victories and many friendships, it will be a special game.”
REAL MADRID OUTLOOK – Compared to the team that, still coached by Chus Mateo, won the 2023 EuroLeague and reached the 2024 championship game, Real Madrid lost three key players: Sergio Rodriguez and Rudy Fernandez retired and Guerschon Yabusele after a great Olympic tournament chose to return to the NBA, in Philadelphia. Furthermore, Usman Garuba, who was supposed to replace him, has not been available for the moment. Point guard Andres Feliz, coming from the Joventut Badalona, is also injured, and now to the list we need to add the Bosnian forward Dzanan Musa (13.8 points per game, 41.4 percent on threes). This can partly explain Real Madrid’s initial struggles (3-4). The designated point guard is Facundo Campazzo, who has extraordinary numbers, averaging 13.6 points and 8.2 assists per game, shooting 42.3 percent from three. The great veteran Sergio Llull (5.3 points and 2.6 assists per game) comes off the bench but plays for about 18 minutes on average. The wingers are interchangeable: Mario Hezonja (11.7 points and 4.3 rebounds on average); Alberto Abalde (6.3 points per game, 38.9 percent from three-point range) plus Xavier Rathan-Mayes (6.8 points and 2.0 assists on average). Hugo Gonzalez, a standout player at youth level, born in 2006, will have some playing time, given the injury situation. Gabriel Deck (10.3 points per game, 68.6 percent from two) can play both as a small forward and as a power forward. Waiting for Garuba, Eli Ndiaye, born in 2004, 5.1 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, is having a lot of opportunities. The center is obviously Edy Tavares (10.1 points, 7.1 rebounds on average, 80.0 percent two-point shooting), an impressive player due to his offensive effectiveness and great defensive presence. With him there is Serge Ibaka, who has had a long and spectacular career in the NBA and last year was at Bayern with Bolmaro. Now, he produces 7.0 points and 4.2 rebounds per game and shoots 75.0 percent from two.
REAL MADRID CONNECTION – Ettore Messina has coached Real Madrid for almost two seasons, with a 23-13 EuroLeague record. Among his players, he had Sergio Llull and Nikola Mirotic. Mirotic has played for Real Madrid for four EuroLeague seasons. He scored 1.084 points over 97 appearances. Fabien Causeur has had a 7-year stay in Madrid, winning the EuroLeague championship twice, and scoring 1.333 points over 213 games played.
GAME NOTES – Nikola Mirotic has made at least one three in 14 of his last 15 games played and is eight threes away from 400 for his career. The six threes he made in Vitoria tied his high with Olimpia set last year against Real Madrid. In Olimpia’s history, ten times a player has scored six threes in a game. Mirotic is the first to do it twice. The overall record belongs to Linas Kleiza with eight (2014/15). Vlado Micov (2017/18) and Luca Vitali (2008/09) made seven. Mirotic has scored at least 20 points for the straight games and counting. He did the same last season from Round 1 to 3. He never did it before. Zach LeDay has now scored over 500 two-pointers for his career after making four in the last game against Bologna. Zach LeDay has been named Round 7’s MVP of the EuroLeague. In the Virtus game, Fabien Causeur scored 18 points. He has not scored 18 points in a game since Round 2 of the last season. Leandro Bolmaro set a new career high with eight assists in Vitoria; Neno Dimitrijevic had nine against Virtus Bologna.
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