Unahotels, the future in forty-eight hours

The future in forty-eight hours. The season enters its climax and the Reggio Emilia basketball is called to the most important exams. After months in which the red and whites have sown excellent things, now is the time to start reaping. It happens that in the space of two days, Priftis's troop will find themselves facing the fundamental junctures of their path. On Sunday, in fact, they will receive the of Reyer Venezia which is in fact the last team that can worry them in a playoff race, while on Tuesday Aliaga will arrive at the PalaBigi Petkimspor for a decisive match for qualification to the quarter-finals Basketball Champions League. For Unahotels, it will be the 7th game in 22 days and the eighth in 24: a grueling marathon. So - without underestimating any dynamic - energy management and recovery will be the basis of every discussion. And it will be necessary to measure the rotations with reason, also using a pinch of cynicism.

With Venice we start from the +3 obtained in the first leg (62-59) and from the +4 in the standings (28 to 24), it is therefore a very important challenge, because a victory would almost certainly give us the certainty of being in the championship playoffs, but even if a defeat were to arrive (even more than 3 points) nothing would be definitively compromised. Reyer would still be two points behind with seven days to go. Translated: the pressure must be all on the shoulders of the lagoon team, not on those of Vitali and his teammates.

Different story, however, for what concerns Tuesday's match with Petkimspor which will become a sort of 'playoff' to achieve an extraordinary qualification among the best eight in Europe. With a victory, in fact, the red and whites would be certain of going to play a historic 'Final Four' in a mini playoff series with the best of two games. The format - which we call 'quarterfinals' - is identical to the one already experienced with Bonn. Game 1 at the home of the best-ranked team, game 2 on the opposite field and the possible 'deal' still in the lair of the top seed.

In short, it will obviously be important to try to do our best in Sunday's match (19,30:XNUMX p.m.) against Reyer, but it is clear that in the midst of such a challenging tour de force, we will need to be clear about what the priorities are; the 'Basketball Champions League' does not allow any make-up exams now, while for Serie A there would still be an acceptable margin to stay in the running. Carpe diem, then, but with that pinch of cynicism that doesn't hurt in the most challenging phases of the season.