Olimpia Milano, Ettore Messina is forced to change

The words of Ettore Messina

The EuroLeague resumes with Olimpia’s fifth away game of the season, this time in Kaunas against a Zalgiris that has done very well so far, winning all its three home games, all of them drawn by the way, and in the past round it picked up its first away win, in Villeurbanne.

The match against Olimpia will draw another sold-out crowd, the third in a row. The good news is that Olimpia is 3-1 on the road where it has been able to win even in the scorching Belgrade weather. The bad news is that the roster will still be in heavily retooled trim due to the absences of Billy Baron (at least one triple in 15 of the last 16 games played), Shavon Shields, Gigi Datome and Stefano Tonut, basically two guards and two small wings that will thin the rotation possibilities in the outside sector, while the long sector is full.

“We are going through a difficult time both physically and technically, in which the unavailability of so many perimeter players forces us to play so many minutes with three longs on the court. We will try to find in defense and rebounds the cohesion necessary to try to win on an obviously difficult court and against a team that is playing well and has deserved the latest favorable results,” said Ettore Messina.