Bologna –
With the door to the playoffs reopened at home, with a current ninth place still precarious but only two lengths away from the fourth and certainly less gloomy than the thirteenth of a month ago, Venice arrives in Bologna with three consecutive victories, two of which away against Napoli and Trieste. With the trip to the Segafredo Arena, Walter De Raffaele’s team takes off on a tour of four consecutive trips between the Championship and Eurocup (Valencia on the 16th and Bursa on the 18th, Ljubljana on the 23rd) that will tell a lot about its European destiny.
Without Michele Vitali, the sprained ankle injury suffered in the National team will keep him out for four weeks, Reyer will count on Stefano Tonut (14.6 average) and Mitchell Watt (15.5), the pillars on perimeter and area. Umana faces Segafredo for the fifth time in the season and even having lost all of them so far, Virtus can’t be considered a soft ball, if only for the recent progress in the championship defense: 65 points against Trento and Trieste, 76 against Napoli. If, however, the back goes a little bit better by not conceding at least easy baskets, the attack goes to pieces (78.3, fourteenth). Destined, for uniqueness of form and substance, to an epic of duration, the rise in the standings can really mean a change of course for Reyer, however this season ends up, which has become, without the winter ogres, contestable for its strengths: second in attempts from distance (28.5), fourth in defensive rating, second also in blocked shots, three per game.
