Varese – Tortona

Italy – Basketball Serie A, day 3.

Sunday 15/10/23, 20:30 CET

Varese are in the middle of a technical renovation, which started with a buzzer-beater win against Pistoia (83-82) and a heavy loss at Virtus Bologna's (115-84). Altogether, the team assembled by coach Bialaszewski has a lot to share with the one that brilliantly performed last year under Matt Brase's management: intensity, fast-breaks, attack over defense. An Nba-style basketball which is reflected by the new names in the roster: Cauley-Stein, Brown, McDermott, all coming from the Nba development leagues. Varese's potential is hard to predict and heavily depending on the physical shape of their protagonists. Indeed, in the past season the Red-and-white have been delighting Serie A with several spectacular games. Now the local supporters ask for more.

Yellow light in Tortona. The undisputed underdog of the last two years have started this Serie A apparently out of breath: one loss, one win and just 64,5 points scored on average. Their seasonal debut at Reyer Venezia's (76-60) was compromised by a dreadful 0/19 from beyond the arch, which partially improved (6/19) in the following victory over Brindisi, much more hard-fought (69-68) than expected. The overall picture says that Tortona still need to find their best shape, despite being a well-established roster brilliantly guided by coach Ramondino. And when to play well is not an option, to make the opponents play bad is often the best solution. At this, Tortona are masterful.

Last year Tortona won twice against Varese, after two vibrant, high-scoring sporting battles. In this sense, they proved to succesfully adapt to Varese's gameplan but they were fit enough to do that. This Sunday, either the visitors manage to slow down the pace of the game or the home team may finally exploit their offensive advantage.