The most balanced semifinal in Europe: Olimpia Milano vs. Dinamo Sassari
The Seria A semifinals will bring us a very interesting contest between Olimpia Milano and Dinamo Sassari. Milano finished 1st the regular season with a 23-7 record and Dinamo finished fourth with an 18-12 record, after a 9-1 run in the last 10 games.
Both teams won their Quarterfinals battles, but in a different manner. First, Olimpia Milano had a very intense and unpredictable round against 8th seed, Avellino. After 3 games, Milano was in danger to be eliminated, but managed to win game 4 at Avellino, 86-80, with huge performances from Nunnally (28 points and 3 assists) and Kuzminskas (15 points and 11 rebounds) and game 5 on Mediolanum Forum 92-76 after another stellar performance from Nunnally (25 points and 7 assists). Other big contributors were Nedovic (13 points and 3 assists) and Tarczewski (12 points and 7 rebounds)
On the other hand, Dinamo Sassari won all games against Brindisi, winning the round with 3-0. In the first game, Sassari won in a dominant fashion 89-73, but the next game was more balanced, 106-97. In the third game, at Brindisi, Sassari won 92-87 to complete the sweep. Dyshawn Pierre with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists and Jack Cooley with 20 points and 9 rebounds were the main guns for Sassari. What was very interesting in this round, was the way Dinamo controlled the paint. In all three games, they simply smashed Brindisi on rebounds, especially in game 2 when Sassari had 50 rebounds to Brindisi`s 24.
In the regular season, both teams lost on home ground. At Sassari`s Palla Serradimigni arena, the visitors won in overtime 107-106. In the second battle of the season in round 25, Dinamo won at Mediolanum Forum, 93-79 with a nice performance from Jack Cooley, who finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds.
After those two games from the regular season, I will say that Dinamo has their chance. They won the rebounds battle on both occasions, so they will need to focus more to build on this advantage and score as many points as they can in the paint. However, Milano has a better roster and also home court advantage and considering the misery from the last round, they will pay more attention to their shots and their opponents. As a prediction, Milano will go further in this playoffs, but I expect Dinamo to take at least one game.
Bogdan Vasile Tirc, info@brainbasketball.net
