Milutinov Misses Olympiacos Trip to Kaunas

Nikola Milutinov, the Serbian center for Olympiacos (Piraeus, Greece), did not travel with the club to Kaunas, Lithuania, for Round 2 of the EuroLeague, Europe's top men's club basketball competition, against Žalgiris Kaunas on Tuesday, 29 September, according to the league's injury update (Eurohoops; Piratas del Basket). Tip-off is 19:00 CEST (1 p.m. ET) at Žalgiris Arena; the game had not tipped at press time (euroleague.net; RealGM). Olympiacos, the reigning EuroLeague champion, registered Bryant Dunston and George Papas on one-year deals on Monday (BasketNews; Eurohoops). Žalgiris is without Nigel Williams-Goss for about two weeks with a hamstring injury suffered in Round 1, and also listed Saben Lee, Deividas Sirvydis and Kaodirichi Akobundu-Ehiogu among absences (Eurohoops; Piratas del Basket).

A center is usually a team’s tallest player and works closest to the basket on both ends of the floor. Tip-off is the jump ball that starts a basketball game; CEST is Central European Summer Time, one hour ahead of standard Central European Time and six hours ahead of Eastern Time in the United States in late September.

Dunston, the 40-year-old American center, and Greek-American guard Papas are both returning to Olympiacos; BasketNews lists each as signed until 2027 (BasketNews). Dunston first played for Olympiacos from 2013 to 2015, later won two EuroLeague titles with Anadolu Efes in Istanbul in 2021 and 2022, and had short stops at Virtus Bologna, Žalgiris and Olimpia Milano before rejoining after training with the club in preseason (BasketNews). Papas played for Olympiacos from 2022 to 2024, then spent time at Peristeri, Panionios and Maroussi, and won the Greek League and Greek Cup with Olympiacos in 2023 (BasketNews).

Eurohoops reported that Lee was a game-time decision for Round 1 but ultimately did not play, and that Sirvydis and Akobundu-Ehiogu did not make the roster that traveled for Round 1; Piratas del Basket consolidates the same names on its Matchday 2 injury report (Eurohoops; Piratas del Basket). The EuroLeague fields 20 clubs this season and ends with a Final Four weekend (euroleague.net). Olympiacos won last season’s title by beating Real Madrid 92⁠–⁠85 in the May final at the OAKA Arena in Athens, its fourth EuroLeague championship (Olympiacos BC / BasketNews Final Four context). In Round 1 on Thursday, 24 September, Olympiacos won 106⁠–⁠89 at Baskonia in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, while Žalgiris opened with an 83⁠–⁠77 win at Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade (euroleague.net). Tuesday’s game is Olympiacos’s second of the new EuroLeague season and Žalgiris’s home opener in the competition (euroleague.net).

Round 2 is part of a midweek double-game stretch across the EuroLeague calendar, with several clubs also playing Wednesday (euroleague.net; Eurohoops). Žalgiris Arena is the home arena of the Kaunas club; RealGM’s scores board for 29 September listed the game among the day’s EuroLeague fixtures with tip still ahead at the morning ET press window (RealGM). Olympiacos coach Georgios Bartzokas works with a deep roster that already includes guards Codi Miller-McIntyre, Cory Joseph, Jean Montero and Evan Fournier and forwards Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Papanikolaou alongside the bigs (BasketNews roster).

Milutinov remains under contract with Olympiacos through 2028 on the club’s published roster (BasketNews). Eurohoops framed the update as confirming he will not yet play with the club on this trip; neither Eurohoops nor Piratas del Basket listed a detailed medical diagnosis beyond the travel scratch in the Matchday 2 reports (Eurohoops; Piratas del Basket). Without him, Olympiacos turns to the newly registered Dunston and the rest of its frontcourt group, including Tyrique Jones and Donta Hall, for the road game in Lithuania (BasketNews roster).