Armani Milan trying their best at Valencia, still hoping for the playoffs
In Round 28 of Euroleague, Valencia will meet Armani Milano in a game that will be played behind closed doors, as several other sports events around Europe due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) risk of transmission. This game will be very important for both teams as they are in a race for a playoff spot, but lost the momentum because their forms are very bad. Who will gain an important win in this game?
Valencia had a slight edge in this battle, but, after losing last 3 games in a row, they lost the 2 wins advantage that had before. They lost first 2 games at home against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Fenerbahce and in the last round, ASVEL Lyon was the next team they lost against. In that game, ended with 72-65, Valencia had low percentages of shooting, especially at the 3-point line where they made only 4 out of 20 attempts. Guillem Vives (14 points) and Louis Labeyrie (11 points and 7 rebounds) where the main contributors for the team, but those points were too few to gain a win in France. Jordan Loyd and Sam Van Rossom are out for this game.
About Milano what we can say more? They’re still losing, increasing that drought to 5 games and the playoffs looks like more far away than at beginning of the season. Their play is very inconsistent, they lose every game, or if they win it, that’s only because the opponents are weaker or have a bad day. The last truly deserved to win for Messina’s men came at the beginning of the year when they beat at home Panathinaikos 96-87, after a good basketball display. In their last game, they met a Real Madrid team with 5 players injured and looked like they have to power to stop their losses and record a surprise win over the Spanish giants. Everything was bright until the last quarter when Real scored 32 points to Milano’s 18 and completed a 78-73 victory. That was a huge blow for Milano and can’t wait to see how they’ll react in this game against Valencia after that blow. The main scorers of the team were: Riccardo Moraschini (21 points and 6 rebounds), Vladimir Micov (13 points and 6 rebounds) and Keifer Sykes (10 points). Christian Burns is out, while Sergio Rodriguez played a limited number of minutes against Real Madrid and is now listed as day-to-day.
In their last meeting, Armani Milano took the win 78-71. Amedeo Della Valle with 15 points and Kaleb Tarczewski who posted a double-double (13 points and 10 rebounds) were the main contributors of the Italian team, while Bojan Dublijevic had a very good game for the guests with 20 points and 6 rebounds. Now we have a very balanced duel here and everything is possible, but if Sergio Rodriguez will be out, Milano’s chances are slim in this game.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
