Consigned to a seventh-place finish by last week's narrow loss at Barcelona, Maccabi (19-14) will aim to take on last victory before the Play-In Showdown against a Milan team needing a win and help from elsewhere to survive (15-18).
Ettore Messina, Milan: 'We will depend a lot on our transition defense'
Seasons
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 34 of 34
Group Regular Season
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October's meeting between the teams saw Maccabi triumph 90-98 behind a season-high 21 points from Jasiel Rivero and he will feature in a big battle for physical supremacy alongside teammates Josh Nebo and Bonzie Colson, that trio going up against Milan's experienced Nikola Mirotic, Nicolo Melli and Johannes Voigtmann. Mitotic's double-double of 18 points and 11 boards was key in last week's vital victory over Virtus, showing Ettore Messina's men are not ready to give up on their postseason hopes and will look to exploit a Maccabi side whose minds may be elsewhere.
Ettore Messina, Milan head coach
"We face a very athletic team who was able to make the play-in tournament despite playing all season without the support of its home crowd, which is remarkable. They have a couple of guards that are leading everybody and their bigs are very dynamic. We will depend a lot on our transition defense and the job that we will be able to do under the boards."