Olimpia runs out of energy too soon: Red Star wins the race to see who makes the fewest mistakes.
A fundamental match for the standings is being staged at the Forum, with a Red Star team looking for redemption after a negative performance on the Asvel pitch and an Olimpia team that wants to win at all costs so as not to miss the play-in train . Milan starts by pushing well on the counterattack, but struggles to attack the deployed defense: quite low pace, there is little spectacle on the pitch.
The show arrives in an almost surreal sequence at the end of the first quarter when Kyle Hines accidentally knocks out 3 opposing players in the space of a minute: first Mitrovic in a contact under the basket, then Nedovic, who tries to return to the field but can’t make it, then Tobey again, also forced to come off after playing his only 27″ of this match. Never go against him under the basket. Much more Red Star in the first quarter though, and in the second the story doesn’t change. In defense, Bolomboy and his teammates play very early and put Olimpia in difficulty as they are unable to build dangerous offensive actions: too many turnovers, already 8 after the first 5′ of the second quarter in which Milan scored only 2 points. Despite this, they can almost consider themselves lucky because the Serbs badly threw away at least three great opportunities on the counterattack. Cold shower for Milan who goes to the locker room at halftime down 16 and with a paltry 31 points scored.
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Upon returning to the pitch, however, we immediately saw a different Olimpia, capable of scoring a 9-0 run under the guidance of captain Melli and Alex Poythress. The newfound enthusiasm, however, was just a flash in the pan and Red Star returned to hammering. There is tiredness on one side and the other and the errors cannot be counted. Olimpia earns the chance to play it in the final, also thanks to a generous Red Star who misses the opportunity to close the game in the third period, but Giedraitis first and Teodosic’s triple then put the end to the game.
The former Baskonia player leads his team to victory thanks to a great performance of 22 points and 6 rebounds, but the soul remains Milos Teodosic: the former Virtus proves fundamental with the triples and enchants the audience with his amazing passes, one of which from doubled which gives 3 meters of space in the corner to his teammate. Magical. Red Star confirms itself as the best team in Europe for steals: 13 tonight and 7.8 on average this season. With this victory the Serbs close Olimpia to 9 victories and can still dream of the playoffs.
Performance two-sided for Olimpia, but an at times convincing second half was not enough to erase the terrible performances of the first two quarters. The absences of the many injured players certainly weigh heavily, Shields and Mirotic above all, but the Messina boys have shown in flashes that they can compete against a solid, but not irresistible Red Star. A bad evening from beyond the arc also had an impact: the Milanese in fact finished with only 27% from 3 points, many of which were taken as the only solution after almost 24 seconds in which they didn’t construct a good shot. The only positive note is Giordano Bortolani with 14 points, who shows off many offensive solutions and above all demonstrates great personality and familiarity with his skills. Milan remains 2 wins away from the play-in zone, waiting to see the new reinforcement Rodney McGruder on the pitch, a guard who arrives from Detroit in the midst of the crisis and who has not yet seen the parquet so far this season.