The rising star had career-highs in scoring and rebounds
Gabriele Procida has career-best effort in loss
ALBA Berlin went down 92-71 on the road against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade on Thursday, but left the court with a reason for optimism. Its signature player, Gabriele Procida, produced his best game yet.
Procida had a rough start of the season. Chosen as the 2023-24 EuroLeague Rising Star, Procida had been off-target until now, averaging just 3.7 points on poor shooting (40.0% 2FG, 15.4% 3FG) and 1.7 rebounds and a PIR of -0.5 in six games. He had registered a negative PIR in four of those games.
Things were different at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall, as Procida found his rhythm from the very beginning even though his team trailed from the opening basket. He scored his team's first 9 points on a couple of driving layups, a triple and a pair of free throws. By the time he had a blocked shot, Procida had a PIR of 15 while the rest of his teammates combined for a PIR of -6.
Procida kept going strong throughout the game, showcasing his all-around skills with a couple of dunks and a lot of quality baskets. He ended up setting new career-highs in points (25), rebounds (7) and PIR (34). His previous personal-best PIR was 19 against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on November 30, 2023; Procida almost doubled it, making 7 of 9 two-pointers and 3 of 7 three-pointers plus 3 steals and 2 blocks. He was physical and focused throughout the game.
"Procida is a talented player. He was very aggressive from the beginning and scored most of his points of his team in the first half and the second half," Zvezda head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos said of ALBA's star.
Game Videos
He stepped up in a tough situation for his team, as ALBA is without Matteo Spagnolo, Matt Thomas, Yanni Wetzell, Justin Bean and Khalifa Koumadje.
"We did a good effort in the situation that we came here, keeping the game around 10 points and trying to come back but in the end, I think the difference was little bit unfair," head coach Israel Gonzalez said. "I hope to be a little bit luckier with injuries, we lost another two players today. The situation is not getting better."
Trevion Williams had an all-around strong performance with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assist, 2 blocks and a PIR of 16 in a losing effort.
Zvezda took a much better care of the ball, finishing the game with 24 assists and 11 assists. Added to those 18 turnovers, ALBA also had fewer assists than its opponent (20).
With Procida and Williams on the rise, ALBA hopes to bring back some of its injured players soon in the upcoming two-round week against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and FC Bayern Munich.