Game 2 is coming up, Poeta: “They have strong soul, we’ll need the same intensity”

Forty-eight hours after defeating Brescia in Game 1, Olimpia is looking to strengthen its lead in Game 2, knowing Germani will respond strongly and play with sense of urgency. Brescia found itself in the same situation in the quarterfinals against Trieste and responded to win the series. In Game 1, Brescia also got off to a furious start, forcing six turnovers in the first quarter, grabbing second-chance rebounds, and building a nine-point lead, a situation that could have become dangerous. Olimpia won its second consecutive road game in these playoffs. They played another high-level defensive game, especially in the middle two quarters, in which they allowed 28 points only. In the fourth quarter, Olimpia slacked off a bit at the end, but with five minutes left, it was up by 26 points. Defense has been the key to the four wins this postseason so far. The shooting has been inconsistent, but the defense hasn’t. Then in Game 1, after turning the ball over six times in the first quarter, Olimpia had just five in the rest of the game. The team practiced at Cus Brescia Saturday morning and then celebrated Zach LeDay’s 32nd birthday at lunch.

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Game 2 is scheduled to be played on Sunday, May 31st, at 20:00 in Brescia. Game 3 will be in Milan next Wednesday.

COACH PEPPE POETA – “Brescia is a team with a strong soul and identity, so I expect them to be very aggressive in Game 2. We’ll have to be able to reset mentally, knowing that every game is different from the last, and that to win, we’ll need to have the same intensity, especially on defense, that we showed for long stretches in Game 1.”

DEFENSE – Brescia had averaged 91.5 points per game in previous meetings with Olimpia, but this time they were held to 72. There’s plenty of data to explain Olimpia’s performance and the impact it had on the game: they allowed 15 free throws to a team that led the Italian league in trips to the line. For example, Amedeo Della Valle had earned a good 36% of his points from the line in the previous four meetings, but he had six out of 24 points in Game 1, a much more acceptable 25%. Jason Burnell, whose low-post play had been a constant in previous games between the two teams, scored in double figures again but shot two of six on twos. Coach Poeta mixed things up a bit compared to previous meetings, starting the game with Shavon Shields on Nikola Ivanovic, the initiator of Brescia’s game, and initially used Quinn Ellis on Della Valle, a task later passed on to Leandro Bolmaro. But a significant portion of credit should go to how the defense controlled Miro Bilan’s. The Croatian center averaged 20.0 points and 12.5 rebounds in Brescia’s two wins over Olimpia. This time, he scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds. He was effective in the first half, but not in the second, when Josh Nebo’s defense stepped up, in particular. In the third quarter, in which Olimpia built its run, Brescia committed four turnovers in an attempt to feed Bilan, two of which were literally stolen by the two Olimpia’s centers (Nebo went for a dunk; Diop overplayed the passing lane and put a hand on the ball).

THE NEBO-DIOP COMBO – Josh Nebo and Ousmane Diop combined for 15 points in Game 1, shooting 5-of-6 from the field and 5-of-8 from the line. In the playoffs, they’re averaging 14.5 points per game on 72 percent shooting from the field.

BROOKS OFFENSE – Armoni Brooks averaged eight attempted three-pointers per game in the quarterfinals, but shot only five in Game 1. Brescia was aggressive far from the rim, even doubling him up when he tried to put the ball down to prevent his long-range shooting. Brooks was smart in reading the situation and hurting the defense in other ways. In the first half, he went 4-for-4 from drives with runners or directly to the rim.

THREE-POINT SHOOTING – Olimpia is 11-3 in the Italian league when Pippo Ricci scores in double figure. So far, he’s been particularly effective against Brescia. In five games this season, he’s scored 53 points (average: 10.1 points per game) on 11-of-14 three-pointers, an obviously unsustainable pace. However, Olimpia, who were 13-of-47 from three after two playoff games, have shot 23-of-55 from the arc in the last two.

GAME NOTES – Leandro Bolmaro is on an eight-game double-digit scoring streak. In the four playoff games, he’s averaging 14.5 points per game on 70.4 percent two-point shooting and a 15.8 personale rating. All this in 23.0 minutes of playing time (he’s also averaging 4.5 rebounds per game)… Shavon Shields, with 810 points, tied Alessandro Gentile as Olimpia’s third-best all-time scorer in the playoffs. Mike D’Antoni is first with 1,080 points. Roberto Premier is second with 1,074. He’s also two three-pointers shy of fifth place in Olimpia history, a place currently held by Dante Calabria with 281… Armoni Brooks is 13 points away from becoming the 60th player with at least 1,000 points scored in the Italian league while wearing an Olimpia jersey.