Olimpia Milano, season starts with a … draw

The first scrimmage is behind us. Olimpia received Ulm in the training gym knowing that the opponents besides being prepared, young, fast and aggressive were also far ahead in preparation.

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They showed this especially in the first twenty minutes when they objectively had an extra gear while Olimpia was looking for rhythm and familiarity. In the second half of the training session things gradually got better mainly on defense but also on offense, once the lost balls were reduced and the percentages improved.

Coach Messina rotated all the men he had at his disposal, even using atypical quintets for example with Ousmane Diop together with Bryant Dunston, who incredibly in the final also jumped on a loose ball as if it was a title final and did not have his history behind him. All summer experiments dictated by necessity.

After the canonical 40 minutes, the first two favorable to Ulm, the others to Olimpia, we settled for another five minutes, which ended in a draw, by the way. Among the individuals all in spurts as is normal in the first outing overall – even in training five-on-five so far have been rare and limited to a few minutes – although Lorenzo Brown was the first to get going; Zach LeDay grew as the minutes passed and Shavon Shields in the fourth period hit two consecutive triples unlocking the team’s shooting a bit. Olimpia will really make its debut Saturday in Cagliari against another Eurocup team, Gran Canaria.