Olimpia Milano - Red Star

Basketball

When this season started, Olimpia Milano were one of the biggest favorites to qualify for the Euroleague Final Four. However, big problems started already in October and November. Their two best players (Kevin Pangos and Shavon Shields) got injured, and the offense completely fell apart. They snapped a five-game losing streak in the Euroleague on Tuesday, plus Shabazz Napier made his debut. If they signed him earlier, they might still be in the hunt for top 8. Milano will shift their full focus to Serie A and the Italian Cup, while in the Euroleague they will try to get some more wins now when pressure is off.

Red Star are in the biggest crisis since the arrival of head coach Dusko Ivanovic. They have lost three games in a row and a triumph in Milano is necessary to maintain a realistic chance of playing in the Euroleague quarterfinals. It all went wrong when they blew a seven-point lead with five minutes left in Kaunas. This was followed by a defeat in the "Eternal Derby" against Partizan, and then the worst game of the season happened in Bologna. When you experience three such defeats in a row, team character comes into play.

We have seen in the previous two months that Red Star has great character. With Nemanja Nedovic, Luca Vildoza and Filip Petrusev, their offense can certainly do more than Milano's offense. It will be crucial for the visitors what their defensive approach will be, because when they are at their level in that segment, they can beat anyone. After all, until the defeat against Zalgiris, they had four consecutive road wins in the Euroleague. This game is much more important for Red Star than for Milano and we should expect the difference in approach to be in line with that.