Italian basketball is a simple game: you play 30 regular season games, two play-off series between quarter-finals and semi-finals, but in the end in the final act, the one where the scudetto is played for, Olimpia Milano and Virtus Bologna always advance. That the matches that award the tricolor have been played for three years, and that for the fourth consecutive year they will be no exception: we start from Thursday 6 June at the Segafredo Arena for yet another capital challenge between the two major national basketball centers, determined to sell their lives dearly in an attempt to give meaning to a season which for many reasons did not offer all the desired answers.
Olimpia, Mirotic is great again. But it’s the group that convinces
Milan cashed in the token first, sbeating Germani Brescia 3-0 (in game 3, the decisive one, in front of an exceptional spectator like Roberto Baggio, praised by PalaLeonessa) and guaranteeing a final that in some way will have to serve to save an otherwise very (too) disappointing season.
Messina, disposed of the waste of the past campaign Euroleague, in the play-offs he found his creature again: above all he found it again Nikola Mirotic, burdened with too many physical problems during the season, which in the last few weeks has definitely changed the course of events. Olimpia seems to have arrived at the appointment with the LBA Finals polished as it had never been before during the year: the defeat on his debut in the post season against Trent he woke up a team from torpor that understood that, if they continued at that pace, they would crash into a wall.
From that moment on everything changed: 6 wins in a row, a choral work capable of exalting more than one player in turn (for example against Brescia Hall and Ricci, and previously Shields, Tonut and Hines depending on the moment) and the feeling of having regained control of the situation at the decisive moment. It can be enough to Milan the 31st championship (the third in a row) to save the judgment on the season? The debate is open, but although the field factor smiles at Bologna, the feeling is that the boys from Messina arrive better to the series that will deliver the championship.
Virtus, Shengelia and Beli at the top. But also some shadows
Series, it is worth remembering, that this year it will be played as a best of 5 matches. A year ago there were still 7, and the home advantage was never affected: 4 Olimpia victories at the Forum, three Virtus victories in Bologna. For Luca Banchi but these will be the first Finals on the bench of the black Vu, which he regenerated especially at the start of the season, putting the Super Cup and then making their fans dream during a European campaign that had the only flaw of seeing the Virtus give way to fatigue at the decisive moment.
The series against Derthona and Venice have been different from each other, but not without problems: against the Bertram there was a need to hold on to race 5 to close the accounts, thanks to the two defeats in away matches which undermined some certainties. Against Venice there was the fear of reliving the uncertainties of the previous series, but in game 4 a sumptuous Toke Shengelia 29 points (and they weigh a lot too Marco Belinelli’s 22) to push back the nightmare of another race 5.
Desks but he is aware that not all the gears are turning in the right way: removed Abass, growing rapidly and also returning to the orbit of the national team (thanks to the many defections in view of the pre-Olympic), the various Hackett, Dobrich And Dunston they showed some continuous empty passes. Of course the field factor can prove to be decisive: Virtus has never lost at homebut not even Olimpia has never been defeated away from home.
Numbers and curiosities: Messina and Banchi, challenge within the challenge
The one that will start on Thursday 6 June (8.30 pm, live on Eurosport and Dmax in clear) will be the sixth final between Milan And Bologna, with the Virtus ahead 3-2 in the previous matches. For Olympia overall it is the 22nd final (11 victories: the other 19 championships arrived when there were no play-offs yet to determine the winner of the championship), for the Virtus the 16th, with 9 victories on the scoresheet (plus 7 championships previously won).
In season the balance sheet says 3-2 Bologna: victory in the Super Cup at the end of September and then in the two home games between the championship and Euroleague (And Milan he made those his own Forums). But the past will count for little or nothing in the future LBA Finals, where as usual we will start from scratch. With Messina who aims to win the seventh championship of his immense career, while Desks (victorious with Milan in 2014) who could take leave of Basketball City (The Baskonia is aggressively courting him) with a championship that would have the flavor of great undertaking.
