Milano – Olympiacos
International - Euroleague, Round 3
Tuesday, 20.45 CET
Milano started the new season in the EuroLeague with a loss to Fenerbahce after overtime, although they left a solid impression. Due to events in Israel, the game against Maccabi Tel Aviv was postponed, giving them more than enough time to focus on this duel with Olympiacos. The signing of Nikola Mirotic best showcased the ambitions of this club. Last year, they were unfortunate with injuries. Shavon Shields and Kevin Pangos missed several months of basketball, which was the main reason they didn't advance to the EuroLeague playoffs. They are facing certain problems now, considering that Maodo Lo and Billy Baron are unavailable. However, despite these absences, Milano has a lot of quality. This is especially the case in the frontcourt where alongside Mirotic they have Nicolo Melli, Johannes Voigtmann, Kyle Hines and Alex Poythress.
Olympiacos is currently facing major injury problems as well. Luke Sikma and Shaq McKissic will be sidelined for several weeks, and Nigel Williams-Goss was also out against Barcelona, with a possibility of not traveling to Italy. Head coach Georgios Bartzokas used only nine players in the last EuroLeague game, indicating how short their rotation is. As soon as a few players are injured, Olympiacos will struggle. With the departures of Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Sloukas, they lost a lot of points in offense. Nikola Milutinov will improve the center position, but the rest of the team will have to work hard to compensate for the loss of their two best players from the previous season. Against Panathinaikos and Barcelona, this team averaged 71 points per 40 minutes of basketball, meaning that in this campaign, they will primarily have to win games through defense.
The downside for Olympiacos is that Milano can play at a higher defensive level than them. Ettore Messina's team will be one of the best defensive teams in the EuroLeague, and when you have players like Mirotic and Shields in offense, it's clear they won't have many problems scoring. In this game, Milano could gain a significant advantage under the rim, and if Milutinov gets into foul trouble, Olympiacos' situation could become hopeless. It was evident last season at the "Mediolanum Forum" how bad of a match-up Milano is for Olympiacos when they lost by 83:62, although they were in their best form at that time. Milano probably won't be as dominant as then, but they definitely have a great chance to achieve their first triumph of the new season.