A meeting of coaching legends will see Ettore Messina's Milan (11-16) attempt to overcome Zeljko Obradovic's Partizan (13-14) in a big battle just outside the postseason places.
Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan: 'We are playing against an outstanding team'
Seasons
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 28 of 34
Regular Season
EA7 Emporio Armani MilanEA7
8583
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
Overview
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The Serbian team ended a three-game losing streak by downing Efes last week thanks to a career night from Aleksa Avramovic, with 30 points, and a big game from the athletic Zach LeDay, while Milan's inconsistent season took another blow with a loss at Bayern. LeDay also shined with 15 points as Partizan comfortably beat Milan, 83-69, in December, and the visitors will now look to control the threat of Milan leader Shavon Shields to potentially push into the all-important top ten.
Ettore Messina, Milan head coach
"We face a very physical team, a team obviously well-organized as any Obradovic team is. For us, it will be important to control the boards, to have a solid defensive transition and to use a well-balanced offense between going inside and outside. It will be a pleasure for everybody to see again Kevin Punter and Zach LeDay, two excellent players who were with us and much appreciated during the 2020-21 season."
Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan head coach
"We're talking about Milan, the team that raised their three-point shooting average, from some 25 attempts, they went to 32. The characteristic of their game is that they have "four" and "five" men who are capable of taking a lot of three-point shots from the pick-and-pop. However, it's the perimeter players who create everything and everyone, with the exception of Kyle Hines, are capable of shooting three-pointers. Those are some of the main things to look for, plus everything we played against them in Belgrade, where they were in the first game dominating and led for a large part of the game with a 15-point difference. We managed to turn the game around at the end, so that the result was not even uncertain. It is a big reminder for us, that we are playing against an outstanding team and we know that we will need to play at the highest possible level if we want to have a positive result."
Bruno Caboclo, Partizan player
"I'm here instead of superstitious Zach Leday. He told me that I have to talk to the journalists because since I gave interview instead of him, we score an average of 106 points. I expect a good game, we are very motivated. We are in a good mood, we are working hard, and I think we are playing very good offensive basketball at this moment."