Olimpia Milano, Ettore Messina’s recipe for Efes.

The words of Ettore Messina

In the last ten EuroLeague games, Real Madrid, Olympiacos, Partizan and Olimpia lead the partial standings, for that matter, with an equivalent record of 8-2. Olimpia has won eight of the last nine; in this streak it has beaten both Olympiacos and Partizan, lost by four on the road in Madrid. The streak is validated by the value of the opponents, as Milan has faced the top two in the standings and the other most in-form team in the competition. Through this winning streak, interrupted only by Real Madrid, it has climbed up the standings to its current 10th place co-habitation with Valencia and Anadolu Efes. Now the last week of EuroLeague begins with two consecutive commitments. For Olimpia this is the eighth time, the second consecutive time (never happened before), but it must be said that in these close games it has often given its best so much so that its own record is 9-5. The two-time European champion Efes is coming off an unexpected defeat in Berlin, punished by an offensive rebound basket by Luke Sikma, after recovering from minus 19. The two teams faced each other six times last year with a 3-3 record, plus in Milan this year with a wide Efes victory. The difficulties of the engagement, which are obvious, are magnified by the absolute necessity of Efes to seize a victory to move forward in the quest for a playoff spot, a quest legitimized by the schedule: in the last four games, Efes will never have to leave Istanbul, because three games are scheduled at home and the fourth with Fenerbahce. Olimpia after Istanbul will have to go to Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, Shavon Shields, who could play only six games in this EuroLeague, almost never with unlimited minutes, has returned. The team’s record in these six games: 5-1.

“Efes is the team that won the last two titles, has experience, depth, talent, and now the absolute necessity in front of its audience to win all the upcoming games. Facing a strong and motivated team is as difficult as it gets especially for us who also played two EuroLeague games last week. Despite this, we would like to play another game of personality and quality like those played in EuroLeague in the last month and a half drawing on all the resources we can recover in terms of both physical and mental energy,” Ettore Messina said on the eve of the game.