Day 14 Euroleague

Barcelona - Olimpia Milano

* Each of Barcelona's pick'n'rolls turned Milano's defence apart. The usuall scenario was Tomic screening, and then rolling to the basket to finish an easy two. When the defence tried to close the paint, there was always a Barca player moving to the wing for an open three. At half time Repesa probably talked about it with his players. In the second half Milano tried to find a solution: they attacked the pick'n'roll, and sent their big guy for help and recover. It was pathetic. Milano's main problem was mental, not tactical.

* Two days ago i wrote about Milano players being apathic. Well, nothing changed. The italians presented an incredibly soft defence. What does soft defence mean, take one: allowing your opponent to finish the game with 64% from the 2pt field. What does soft defence mean, take two: letting the other team score 20 points more than their avarage. What does soft defence mean, take million: not forcing the other team to a single turnover in an entire quarter. Yes, Milano received 89 points from the worst offence Euroleague team. Then again, Milano is the Euroleague's worst defence team.

* So how does one bring make a game over already in the first quarter? simply takes advantage of all of the stuff written above. At the end of the first quarter Barcelona had 32 points with 77% from the 2pt range and no turnovers. They did 7/9 from two and 4/10 from three. In other words, in the first quarter Barcelona had just 8 possesions which didn't end up with a basket.

* This event symbolizes the game: 12 minutes in to the game, the italians forced Barca to lose their first ball of the game. Change of course? Milano went on to offence and turned the ball over.

* Barcelona was playing, as always, good defence. They were attacking Milano's guards (as a result, from time to time Milano's big men were left in the paint facing a spanish guard), closing down passing lines and playing aggressively. Sometimes even too aggressive. 2:30 minutes before the italians were able to make their first three pointer. They took just 5 of those in the first half (made 1/5). Barcelona's defence didn't allow them to take shots from beyond the arch. Milano had to make most of their points from one on one. No wonder Sanders had a great game. They finished the game with 17 assists, while Barca had 30.

* A point for thought: who is Milano's leader? Who is supposed to motivate the players when things are stuck? Who takes responsibility for the team as team? I believe in summer the plan was to put Gentile in that position. But after the weired summer both sides had, Gentile lost the captain title, and Milano was left without a leader.

#Euroleague #Barcelona #OlimpiaMilano