By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
After being defeated by Olympiacos in Piraeus last night (28/1) for the 20th round of the EuroLeague regular season, Brose Bamberg saw its record dropping to 7 – 13 and its playoff chances getting dangerously diminished.
While the Bavarians have lost some precious ground in the race for the Top 8, Nicolo Melli believes that the ten remaining games might provide enough opportunity for his team to bounce back and possibly clinch a ticket for the postseason.
“It’s not easy, of course”, he admitted to Eurohoops. “Still, there is time. The season remains very long so we will try to do what we always do. Take it game by game. We keep it that way and anything can happen.”
In “Peace and Friendship arena, Brose Bamberg was taken by storm 24 – 13 in the first quarter, becoming prey to the high-motor game of the Reds both ends and struggling to make their usually lucrative offensive systems produce buckets.
Despite their opponents’ determination, they stood back on their feet. Even though there was a moment when things looked close the point of no return, they amassed their strength and began draining the open shots to come back from a 15-point deficit. When Darius Miller buried the three-pointer for the 71 – 69 with four minutes left, it was clear that the momentum had been shifted towards the side of the guests.
Yet Khem Birch’s authoritative presence on the floor jump-started the hosts’ engines and Bamberg faced its first loss by Olympiacos after three consecutive victories since January 2016.
When asked if his team paid for its sloppy entrance or the fact that it ran out of juice near the end, Melli commented on how one thing affected the other. “They both played a part in our defeat in their way. Obviously if you start bad in this court against a team like Olympiacos it’s hard to get back in the game. Then you spend a lot of energy to come back. That’s what we lacked near the end, along with the small details. They took offensive rebounds and we didn’t pull off some defenses we should have. We didn’t grab loose balls. Just small things that if you put them together, they make a difference.”
The Italian player wasn’t really happy with his performance. Actually, when we noted that he generally plays “even better” than a super last season, he joked saying, “… well I wasn’t ‘even better’ tonight was I? Seriously, it wasn’t a good game from my side.” Perhaps Melli had in mind that despite the 14 points he dropped, he wasn’t involved in his team’s offense enough. No wonder, since this was the first time this season and third overall in the past two years, that he finished a game with zero assists.
What he did, or perhaps didn’t do vs Olympiacos is the exception to a brilliant rule he’s been proving throughout his EuroLeague journeys over the past two years. After a breakout 2015/206 season, the Italian forward has catapulted his numbers to even higher production rates this year. You’d have to search long and hard to find an area of the game that he doesn’t influence, something that is also portrayed in the 12.7 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1 steal he averages.
His immense impact in Brose Bamberg’s game has earned him EuroLeague MVP honors for December. Not the first time he wins this award and quite possibly not the last.
In perfect accordance with the altruistic nature that characterizes the offensive structure of Brose Bamberg, Melli attributes his individual improvement to the team spirit that flows through the veins of his squad.
“The team is unselfish and the team plays together. As a single unity, as one. This is what allows me to play good basketball. As many other of my teammates do.”
Indeed. These last two season, and with Melli in the roster, the German team has been performing masterfully calculated, attractive basketball, with enviable on-court motion. But the inability to capitalize on such qualitative performances is obviously something that troubles him.
“You can’t compare the last two seasons. Last season was different and this one is much more difficult. The format is different, more challenging. You don’t have time to prepare the games or think about what happened before. Still, we are trying to play good basketball. But I think we have to become a bit tougher in order to profit from our game.”
As a youngster, the 26-year-old player had won the silver medal with the Italy in the 2011 U20 European Championship. Over the past years, he and his teammates in the senior national team compile an outfit abundant with NBA and EuroLeague talent but somehow fail to reach their goals in international competitions.
The most recent example is what took place last summer in Turin, when Italy lost in the final of the pre-Olympic Tournament by Croatia, even though it played in front of its home crowd. Nicolo Melli trusts the quality of his national team’s roster and believes a splash of aggressiveness might do the trick for something good in the upcoming Eurobasket.
“It’s not that easy to have success in competitions like Eurobasket or pre-Olympic Tournament. We have lots of talent, yes. But it’s not enough to succeed. Talent alone wins you nothing. We must try harder, become tougher, be persistent. We should try our best to accomplish something in the Eurobasket.”