The quarter-final with Trento is behind us, thanks to the two consecutive away victories, but the semi-final with Brescia starts again in Milan for Games 1 and 2. Olimpia faces them encouraged by the quality shown in the most recent matches, as the figures show, 89.5 points on average (second in the playoffs), 61.8% in two-point shooting (first overall), 40.9% from three (second) and also the 7.3 steals per game, the best figure of the postseason. At the same time, the only team that scored more than Olimpia was Brescia, the only team to score more than 90 per match, thanks above all to the highly effective use of the three-point shot. In the series with Pistoia, Germani shot over 48% from beyond the arc, and was also the only semi-finalist to have closed the score in just three games. Therefore, he presents himself at the Unipol Forum with more than a week’s break compared to his last commitment. In the regular season, what divided the two teams was only one more victory achieved by Olimpia compared to a team that had dominated the standings for a long time. The previous two are irrelevant: the first dates back to the end of December and Olimpia had neither Shields nor Mirotic; the second is recent but Mirotic was still missing and Brescia didn’t have Semaj Christon so they resorted to lots of minutes of zonal defense to restrain Olimpia. The constant is that both races ended in a sprint. Brescia is also the Italian team that uses the low post game the most with the Croatian specialist Miro Bilan, who however Olimpia has already faced at this level when he was in Sassari and paired with Jason Burnell, a winger but also he has internal play. In the playoffs so far he has been the best rebounder ever, but he is also scoring a lot and shooting well (66.7% from two). The fact remains that Brescia is a team with a consolidated group built around Della Valle, Gabriel, Petrucelli, Cobbins. Amedeo Della Valle, the former player, scored over 20 points per game in the quarterfinals, second only to Shavon Shields, and was one of five players to shoot over 50.0% from three as Massinburg also did. Olimpia was able to win twice in Trento without Shields, overwhelming in the first two games. Nicolò Melli has an open streak of three games in double figures, a figure usually a harbinger of good news for Olimpia. In general, everyone gave something or a lot. But if Olimpia has won all nine semi-final matches played in the Messina era, this series is different from the previous three, against a team that has already won an Italian Cup, at the top for years and which during this season has received the conviction that I was ready to aim for the maximum. We start on Saturday evening, Race 2 is scheduled for Monday.
NOTE – EA7 Emporio Armani Milan-Germani Brescia will be played at the Unipol Forum on Saturday 25 May at 8.45pm. Click here to get tickets. Game 2 will be played on Monday 27 May at 8.45pm again at the Unipol Forum (Click here to purchase tickets).
THE REFEREES – Michele Rossi, Guido Giovannetti, Andrea Valzani.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “It will be a complicated semi-final, as is normal because the four teams that have reached this point are the best in the championship. Brescia is a team that has size, athletic guards, a great shooter like Amedeo Della Valle, and a very good tactical organization. The little things will be decisive, such as not allowing easy baskets in transition, not allowing offensive rebounds, attributing the right value to every possession, as always at these levels. We will play one game at a time and try to improve along the way. We arrive at this semi-final knowing that we have passed an important test against Trento, who are an aggressive team, who play at a high pace, who attack you from the dribble both to score at the rim and to generate open three-point shots. We struggled to enter the series, both from a technical and mental point of view, so much so that we lost the first game on the last possession. After that, we played three games of a good level, I saw players who passed the ball to each other with pleasure, I saw players who helped each other in defense and were ready to suffer as was the case in the two very tense games in Trento . So it was a series that helped us grow and arrive at this series with Brescia with confidence.”
Olimpia Milano press office
