Brindisi climb to the 1st place after smashing Olimpia Milano

After beating the title contender in Euroleague Anadolu Efes, Olimpia Milano is back into mediocrity in the Italian league. They lost the no.1 spot in Legabasket after an embarrassing game at Brindisi. Any team has the right to lose in some circumstances but this time Olimpia Milano had all the things in their favour.

Happy Casa Brindisi had 2 important absences: Darius Thompson and Nick Perkins that are scoring together 26 points and grabbing 9 rebounds per game. In this situation, I am sure that many decent teams from Italy would have won against Brindisi. The rotation of the squad was very short and the quality of their game had to suffer. But not against this poor Olimpia Milano that cannot play well constantly.

Even more, Malcolm Delaney was back from injury for the Euroleague powerhouse and they have by far the largest roster in Italy. Olimpia Milano can always have a couple of rested guys because they don’t use all their players in the Euroleague games.

How to be beaten by a team that can count on only 3-4 players? And with this stupid result to lose the 1st spot in Italy before important games to come against Sassari and Virtus Bologna?

We can understand that the main goal is the Euroleague and Olimpia Milano has done a good European campaign but this is not an excuse to lose in front of a decimated team like Brindisi. With all their players available, Brindisi was massacred this week in Izmir by Pinar Karsiyaka and now without Thompson and Perkins, they win easily vs. a Euroleague title contender?

Image: Basketball Champions League