Bertram's new year begins in Naples: coach De Raffaele's words on the eve of the penultimate day of the first half of the season
The first of 2025 is far from home for Bertram Derthona, expected at 20:45 tomorrow, Saturday 4 January, by Napolibasket at the FVA PalaBarbuto in the capital of Naples for the 14th day of the Serie A Unipol, the penultimate of the first round. From the league leaders to the bottom of the table, this is the leap in opponent level that the calendar offers Derthona after the great success against the league leaders Trento that closed the old year. Bertram, who will be without Gorham for the third consecutive match, is chasing a fourth consecutive win – ninth overall in the championship – which would mathematically guarantee qualification to the Final Eight of the Coppa Italia with one round to spare without worrying about the results of the others, thanks to the recent climb into the playoff zone that has installed them in sixth place with 16 points, 4 more than the ninth place that at the end of the first leg will exclude them from the tricolor kermesse in Turin.
A REVOLUTIONARY OPPONENT Napoli's mere 2 points in the standings are deceptive compared to the team's current level of competitiveness, given recent transfers that have significantly transformed the Neapolitan team, fresh from a coaching change with the arrival of Giorgio Valli in place of Igor Milicic. The Campania management brought back two key players from last year's Coppa Italia victory, Jacob Pullen and Tomislav Zubcic, and brought in three other key players: Erick Green, Malik Newman, and Benjamin Bentil, the scorer of the missed three-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent Napoli to overtime in the relegation game against Varese (89-86). The previous week, however, Napoli's first win of the season came in overtime in the home derby against Scafati (96-94), the Tortona team's home opponent in the next round that will lead to the tournament's halfway point.
WHERE TO WATCH IT ON TV The race will be streamed live on DAZN.
QUOTES " The team trained very well after Trento, and victories certainly help them work better ," began coach Walter De Raffaele 's pre-match comments . "Napoli is a team that has completely changed its face, with a starting five that features many Euroleague-caliber players. Especially at home, they have the ability to score a lot of points, in a variety of ways and with a variety of players, from Pullen to Zubcic, from Green to Bentil. They love to run the court, so it will be very important to impact this ability, slow them down, because individually they are so talented. On offense, the key element for us will be the idea of sharing the ball."
