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Diener and Silins are back on the team for Reggiana

The only thing on the mind of the home team is a victory that keeps their Top 32 chances alive. Paris are in a much better situation with 3-3, but they've still got a lot of work to do

Reggiana are looking to win this match and end their 5 loss streak in the Eurocup. They're bottom ranked in group A, but still have a hope of getting to the next stage. They lost to Brose in the last round game, holding on well in the first half as they had a 38-36 lead, but the game was decided in the poorly played third quarter. They lost that period 18-9 and could not come back from that.

Diener, Silins, Pini and Lavrinovič were still missing in that match, but all but the last of them finally played on Saturday against Roma. They started the game with 6-16, forcing Menetti to use Diener right away. They managed to salvage the score by halftime and were the calmer side in a close finish of the last quarter. The key player was Diener, who scored 7 of his 13 points in the last two minutes. He was also their best scorer, while Polonara, Della Valle and Taylor all scored 12. They managed to completely shut down Roma's tall guys, and the only thing on could hold against them is the porous defense. They allowed Roma to shoot 58% from the field, but made up for that by catching rebounds in offense.


This is something they need to improve as Paris scored 88 points in their first match, while they have no room for error today, and cannot allow another home defeat.


- This is the final game for us, we either win or "go home", there are no excuses. The most important thing in a game such as this is the attitude, desire to win and hunger for every possession- noted coach Menetti, with Cinciarini adding:


- We must believe our European trip is not over. Paris are a physically strong team, we saw that in our first match. Today we'll fight to the very end.


One thing is certain, the return of Diener and Silins hugely improves their chances of winning.


Paris are in a much better situation with a 3-3 record, but they've still got a lot of work to do, and losing this game would make their job significantly more complicated. Their three game winning streak ended on Friday, right where it started as Strasbourg got their revenge for the Eurocup defeat ten days earlier. The deciding period was the last quarter, in which Paris allowed 30 points, far too much to keep up with defensively good team such as Strasbourg.


- We knew right away that the game would be different from the one in the Eurocup. We were not up to the task physically in the end, but that's the opponent's work as well. Strasbourg are a team with good players who can adjust, they pressured us in the second half- said Nicolas Lang, the best player on the defeated team (18 points, 7/13 shooting).


Paris had little trouble winning their first match against Reggiana, but the circumstances very different then. The Italian team could only rotate seven players due to injury issues back then, and were unable to keep up with the pace Paris dictated in front of their own crowd. The story is different now, Reggiana are much better at home and the only player missing today is Darjuš Lavrinovič. The return of several previously missing players will give the home coach numerous new options.