An early season battle with Top 16 implications will take place in the Italian capital on Wednesday when Lottomatica Roma hosts Unicaja Malaga in Group B. Both teams have struggled so far this season, but hope to start pick up momentum and move up the Group B standings. Roma (2-3) is coming off a 71-69 home thriller against Joventut, in which Alex Righetti started for the first time and came through with a season-high 16 points and center Ognjen Askrabic continued to improve with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals. Unicaja (1-4) suffered an 87-72 loss at Panathinaikos, despite a season-high 19 from center Daniel Santiago. Both teams have a key player that is still being worked into the lineup. Lottomatica signed former Euroleague assist champ Mire Chatman less than two weeks ago, while Marcus Brown the all-time scoring leader in Euroleague history, has seen limited minutes for Unicaja since returning from an injury that forced him to miss the start of the season. Roma hopes that Chatman will help rejuvenate an attack that has averaged 68.8 points per game and is shooting just 42% from two-point range. Where Roma has proven successful is with pressure defense, as it leads the league with 15.4 steals per game. Unicaja, which turns the ball over some 16.6 times on average per game, will need to be extra careful against Roma. On paper these teams match up quite well against one another, with a pair of true centers, well-rounded forwards and deep rotations at guard. Unicaja coach Sergio Scariolo will have to make a tough decision as to which player will take the daunting task of stopping Dejan Bodiroga (14.2 ppg., 3.8 apg.), with Florent Pietrus and Kostas Vasiliades among the candidates. Unicaja guards Carlos Cabezas (14.2 ppg.), Jiri Welsch (13.8 ppg.) and Berni Rodriguez (13.2 ppg.) are the team's top three scorers, with Pepe Sanchez, who won the 2002 Euroleague title alongside Bodiroga at Panathinaikos, starting at point guard. Vlado Ilievski (11.4 ppg., 2.2 spg.) will join Chatman and Righetti in the challenge of stopping the Unicaja guard corps, while trying to keep a slower pace, which is to Bodiroga and coach Jasmin Repesa's liking. This game represents the first meeting between these sides and a playoff atmosphere can be expected, as a loss for either will be a blow to hopes of finding a way back into Group B's race for the Top 16.
Euroleague.net
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