2018-19Regular SeasonRound 26
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan 66
Olympiacos Piraeus 57
March 14, 2019 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 MEDIOLANUM FORUM

James sparks Milan to sweep of Olympiacos

AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan took a big step towards a place in the EuroLeague Playoffs with a 66-57 win over visiting playoff-chasing rival Olympiacos Piraeus on Thursday night. Behind 27 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds from Mike James, Milan won its second game over Olympiacos this season to improve to 14-12 and sixth place in the standings, while Olympiacos dropped to 13-13 in the eighth place. Vladimir Micov was the only other double-digit scorer for the hosts with 13 points, while Kaleb Tarczewski and Jeff Brooks each had 10 rebounds. Nikola Milutinov collected 13 points plus 9 rebounds, Nigel Williams-Goss had 11 points and Sasha Vezenkov scored 10 in defeat.

Milan got off to a great start with Micov, James Nunnally and James combining to scored 13 consecutive points in scoring on six of seven trips down the floor. A triple from James made it 13-2. Milutinov had a pair of dunks to cut into the deficit, but James and Micov made sure Milan held a 19-10 lead after the first quarter. A corner triple from Kostas Papanikolaou got Olympiacos going at the start of the second, but baskets were few and far between. Olympiacos dominated the offensive boards and held Milan to just 4 points in the quarter. The hosts did not score in the final 5:17 of the half, but all Olympiacos could generate was a jumper from Briante Weber and a close-range basket from Papanikolaou to tie it at 23-23 going into halftime. Milan started the third quarter in another gear on offense, scoring 6 points in 85 seconds before a triple from James made it 34-25. Williams-Goss got it going with a triple and a runner and Milutinov had a three-point play to cut within 38-35. James scored 7 points before the end of the quarter, including a last-second triple to end the third quarter at 49-39. Early in the fourth, Micov, James and Brooks all hit from long range, with James turning his into a four-point play, to extend the margin to 59-43. Vezenkov and Williams-Goss gave the visitors hope, but Micov scored on a fast break and James took it to the basket to open a 66-53 margin with 2:09 to go, which all but wrapped up the game.

Pivotal performer

Mike James was instrumental in the second half, scoring 18 of his 27 points in the last two quarters. He also had no assists in the first half, but 6 in the second.

Scoring highs and lows

Milan needed 4 minutes and 20 seconds to open a 13-2 lead to start the game, but then scored just 10 points the rest of the half. After halftime, Milan needed 85 seconds to score 6 points and posted 26 points in the third quarter, more than in the entire first half.

Overcoming a record-low

It is rare that a team wins a game in which it set a record-low in points, like Milan which scored just 4 points in the second quarter. Milan had never previously scored fewer than 7 points in a quarter in any of its 238 EuroLeague games.

Hidden stat

Milan entered the game allowing the third-most offensive rebounds - 11.2 per game. Olympiacos had 11 offensive rebounds by halftime, but just 1 in the second half.

Injury instead of milestone

Vassilis Spanoulis came off the bench in the first quarter, needing 11 points to become only the second player in EuroLeague history to reach 4,000 points. However, Spanoulis injured his right ankle with 5:43 left in the second quarter and spent the rest of the game at the end of the bench cheering on his teammates.

Next game

Round 27 tips off on Tuesday, and that's when Olympiacos will host another playoff-chasing rival, FC Bayern Munich. A day later, Milan will visit Real Madrid, which has already secured home-court playoff advantage.

Mike James - AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan - EB18
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; PEREZ, EMILIO; SILVA, SERGIO
Attendance: 10096
By Quarter1234
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan1942617
Olympiacos Piraeus10131618
End of Quarter1234
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan19234966
Olympiacos Piraeus10233957
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 DELLA VALLE, AMEDEO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2 JAMES, MIKE 34:25 27 4/9 4/9 7/8 1 5 6 6 2 2   1 2 6 31
5 MICOV, VLADIMIR 33:00 13 5/8 1/4     2 2 1 3 1     2 2 12
15 TARCZEWSKI, KALEB 31:14 6 3/5   0/2 2 8 10     1 2   1 1 13
16 NEDOVIC, NEMANJA 22:28 7 2/4 1/7   1 2 3 1   1     3 4 3
19 KUZMINSKAS, MINDAUGAS 7:35   0/1       1 1           1   -1
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 NUNNALLY, JAMES 13:48 6 3/6 0/3     1 1 1   1     1    
23 BURNS, CHRISTIAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
32 BROOKS, JEFF 30:13 5 1/2 1/1   3 7 10 1   1 2   3 1 14
55 JERRELLS, CURTIS 18:31   0/2 0/2         1         2   -5
92 OMIC, ALEN 8:46 2 1/1     1 1 2 1           1 6
Team           2   2     2          
Totals 200:00 66 19/38 7/26 7/10 10 27 37 12 5 9 4 1 15 15 73
        50% 26.9% 70%
Head coach: PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 WEBER, BRIANTE 23:38 8 4/9 0/1   1 6 7     1 1 2 3 1 5
3 WILLIAMS-GOSS, NIGEL 30:53 11 3/8 1/3 2/2 1 1 2 6   1     4 1 8
6 TOUPANE, AXEL 5:52     0/1         1         1   -1
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 9:17 2 1/3 0/2     1 1 4   1   1   1 2
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 30:10 13 5/7   3/3 4 5 9   1         4 25
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 15:15 10 5/6 0/1     1 1   2       4 1 8
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 19:14 4 2/8 0/2   3 5 8   1 2       3 6
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 37:56 5 1/2 1/5     5 5 1 1 3     2   2
17 MANTZARIS, VANGELIS 10:20   0/1 0/1     2 2 2       1 1 2 2
21 AGRAVANIS, DIMITRIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
31 BOGRIS, GEORGIOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
32 LEDAY, ZACH 17:25 4 1/4   2/2 3 1 4   1         2 8
Team             1 1     3         -2
Totals 200:00 57 22/48 2/16 7/7 12 28 40 14 6 11 1 4 15 15 63
        45.8% 12.5% 100%
Head coach: BLATT, DAVID

Head Coaches

PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
"We need to play better in offense than today. We played solid defense, we stayed in the game plan, that is good for us. But they played without Spanoulis in the second half, that was an advantage for us. The problem is, we are starting and approaching a game the right way, but we cannot play a quarter like we played the second quarter. But, I am happy because my players restarted the third quarter with the right confidence, we played an excellent third quarter. That is positive for us. But we need experience for these kind of games, these kind of moments. This is a good game to show us what kind of mistakes we do, and how far we have to go to get to another level. We know we have to play Real Madrid, Panathinaikos, Fenerbahce and Efes. Three of the top four teams, and a team like Panathinaikos, which is in good form and chasing us. It is a tough schedule, we might lose all four. But we need to play game by game for ourselves. We have a project. At this moment last season in the EuroLeague we were finished, so far down. But in this second season of the project, we are making the right step despite the big injuries we had the whole season. We are building our mentality and only looking at our mentality, not at our ranking."
BLATT, DAVID
Olympiacos Piraeus
"Congratulations to Milan. We had a plan for how we wanted to play the game and I think, for the most part, except some minutes in the second half, we succeeded following the game plan. Milan is a very very explosive, talented and deep-rostered team, offensively in particular. And we held them 23 points below their average. Problem is, we didn’t score. That’s the result of the game, very simply. We move forward, we have a very important week coming next week and I believe these are the games that will determine our playoff chances and we've got to be ready. It is difficult for us to play without Spanoulis and without Strelnieks, who are two very crucial ball-guards for us in a game today that is determined by those type of players, like Mike James for example. Perhaps the reason we couldn’t reach the number the points we needed to reach in a game where we defended so well. I think we moved the ball, we just shot poorly. We tried to play a more disciplined game and slow down things on offense so they couldn’t create the pace they wanted to play."

Players

TARCZEWSKI, KALEB
AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan
"We knew it was going to be a tough game, we knew we will have to come out and play great defense. Last week against CSKA we did not do such a good job rebounding the ball and that was one of the emphases going into this game. It was a great win, it wasn’t always pretty for us, but we battled through and stayed together as a team and played a great game. It is sad we can’t have Gudaitis out there. We all love playing with him, he is an incredible basketball player, I practice against him the whole year and there is no guy in the league better than him. Now I have this opportunity and I am grateful for it."
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