Crvena Zvezda lacked defense against Milano’s rapid fire: Maodo Lo continued the losing streak with a career-high
0![Crvena Zvezda lacked defense against Milano’s rapid fire: Maodo Lo continued the losing streak with a career-high Crvena-zvezda-Nemanja-Nedovic](https://basketballsphere.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Crvena-zvezda-Nemanja-Nedovic.jpg)
Photo: KK Crvena zvezda
In the 10th round of the premier European competition, the EuroLeague, Crvena Zvezda hosted Milano on their home court. The Italian team emerged victorious with a score of 93:71, marking their sixth consecutive triumph against the red and whites.
Once again, the Crvena Zvezda duo of Adam Hanga and Branko Lazic missed this match. In a last-minute setback for Milano, Diego Flaccadori fell ill, preventing his participation. A piece of good news for the fans of the team from Belgrade was the fact that Shabazz Napier was able to play.
Dejan Davidovac had an excellent start to the match, scoring the first seven points for his team. On the other side, Nicolo Melli made successful shots to level the score. The continuation of the game brought a certain amount of tension and a few missed opportunities on both sides, leading to Milan taking a 10:7 lead. Luka Mitrovic stepped up during these moments, and Maodo Lo scored five consecutive points at the end of the opening period, giving the Italian team a 20:19 lead.
Milan extended their lead to the largest margin, 26:21, at the beginning of the second quarter with three-pointers. However, Rokas Giedraitis and Milos Teodosic responded on the other end. The next few minutes witnessed a replay of the first quarter, with Milano maintaining their lead and even going ahead 37:29. Then, the closing moments of the first half belonged entirely to Crvena Zvezda. Nemanja Nedovic and Dejan Davidovac made three-pointers, and Teodosic concluded the first half with a fantastic dribble move, leaving Stefano Tonut on the floor, and hitting a three-pointer to bring the score to 39:38 before the continuation of the match.
Shavon Shields opened the second half with a three-pointer, and then Davidovac and Mitrovic created an 8-0 run for a lead of 47:41. Although the third quarter started like a dream for the Belgrade team, Milano crafted a 20-4 run in the next few minutes. Led by the trio of Nikola Mirotic, Shields, and Lo, they secured a new turnaround and led 61:51. By the end of the third quarter, the red and whites managed to reduce the deficit to 63:56.
Crvena Zvezda tried every way to overcome the score deficit. Maodo Lo practically played alone for Milan, while Yago dos Santos and Nedovic brought the deficit down to just four points, 69:65. Then, Shields hit two three-pointers in two possessions, putting Milan back in a double-digit lead at 75:65.
Then, Lo hit his sixth three-pointer out of seven attempts with a little over three minutes left, securing Milano’s largest lead of 12 points at that moment. In a way, this paved the way for the triumph of the Italian team. Milano made an impressive 17 three-pointers out of only 27 attempts, undoubtedly making the biggest difference in this match.
With this performance, “Le Scarpette Rosse” achieved their fourth win of the season, bringing their record to 4-6, while Crvena Zvezda now has a negative record of 3-7.
Maodo Lo was the key player for Milano, setting a career-high in the EuroLeague with 32 points. Shavon Shields added 19 points. On the losing side, Dejan Davidovac led with 18 points, while Nemanja Nedović scored 16.
Looking at the coaching clash between Ioannis Sfairopoulos and Ettore Messina, this was the sixth time in history that they were on opposite sides. Before the duel in Belgrade, the Italian coach had a more successful record at 4-1, further increasing that difference now.
This marked the 12th EuroLeague encounter between the red and whites and Milano. Interestingly, the Belgrade team won the first six matches, but they have now suffered six consecutive losses against the “city of fashion” team.
In the next round of the elite competition, Crvena Zvezda will host Anadolu Efes on their home court, while Milan welcomes Zalgiris to the Mediolanum Forum.