Valencia Basket aspires to a serious role in Piraeus
MADRID, 3 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Valencia Basket visits Olympiacos this Friday on matchday six of the Euroleague, with the ambition of becoming a team to be reckoned with, after two wins and three losses but with a good image, on their return to the top continental competition.
Álex Mumbrú’s team is off to a creditable start among the best in Europe, with three narrow defeats that could well have gone their way. After the triumph over ALBA Berlin, the ‘taronja’ team hopes to chain two victories for the first time.
The challenge is in the physical and mental exhaustion that is being noticed after the first month of competition. Mumbrú’s men lacked fuel last weekend against Barça and now they have another bug in front of them, the Olympicaos. The Greek team lost their undefeated status last week against AS Monaco.
All in all, those from Piraeus have given continuity to their surprising past season and seem to be one of the rivals to beat this season. Georgios Bartzokas’ men are the best attack in the Euroleague, led by Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Sloukas. The Greek coach rested Shaquielle McKissic over the weekend and could recover another offensive reference such as Giannoulis Larentzakis after a blow.
Meanwhile, Mumbrú recovers point guard Jared Harper and has a little more shooting for power forward James Webb III, although he loses Sam Van Rossom due to some discomfort in his right knee and maintains the already known casualties of Jasiel Rivero and Martin Hermannsson.
“Olympiacos is a team that has only lost at home against Monaco and has beaten the other three ACB teams at home. On offense they have been together for a long time and they know exactly what they are playing, so we have to be good defensively, defend the ‘pick and roll’ well with Walkup and Sloukas, who are their generators”, said the ‘taronja’ coach in statements provided by his club, collected by Europa Press.
“You have to try to always be in the game, try to control the pace, because there are many streaks there, times when they come very high with their fans and we have to try to control them,” added Mumbrú, who trusts that Valencia will return to win in Piraeus as he did on his last visit two years ago.
OLYMPICS: Walkup, Canaan, Vezenkov, Papanikolaou and Fall — possible starting quintet — Bolomboy, Larentzakis, Lountzis, Mckissic, Popes, Peters, Sloukas.
VALENCIA BASKET: Jones, Prepelic, Claver, Pradilla and Dubljevic –possible starting five– Alexander, López-Arostegi, Harper, Puerto and Radebaugh.
–REFEREES: Difallah, Vyklicky and Sukys.
–PAVILLION: Pavilion of Peace and Friendship.
–TIME: 20:00/Dazn.
