Euroleague Basketball Tips
Euro League basketball predictions appear under each mini game preview.
Panathinaikos – Anadolu Efes
A classic EuroLeague rivalry is renewed on Thursday as Panathinaikos OPAP Athens (2-3) welcomes Anadolu Efes Istanbul (4-1) for their second games of the season’s first double-round week. Panathinaikos, coming off a 103-86 road loss at Khimki Moscow Region, will look to right itself at home. Efes has won its last four games, including an 85-70 home decision over Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade on Tuesday, and seeks to keep touch with the top echelon in the standings.
Panathinaikos has been up and down to start the season, but can steady themselves by using the OAKA advantage to take a big scalp like Efes. The Greens can score with Efes, but the visitors have been better defensively, so the hosts will have to make sure they stand up to the task at both ends. Efes also has much better free throw accuracy (84.6% to 69.2%), so the Greens should avoid committing too many fouls. In the end, it will come down to the Panathinaikos shutting down some of the threats that Efes presents and, with the help of master passer Nick Calathes, eluding the visitors’ attempts to do the same.
Efes is on a roll but knows that any trip to OAKA, where Panathinaikos becomes an even stronger team, is difficult. Their records might make it seem that Efes has the upper hand going into the battle, but one must not forget that two of the Greens’ losses were by a single point, so this duel is more balanced than it looks. Efes will mostly have to stop two names running the hosts’ offense: Calathes and his league-best 9.0 assists per game, and Fredette. Panathinaikos has the league’s second-highes two-point accuracy (58.2%), so Efes will look to top-ranked shot-blocker Bryant Dunston to anchor another solid defensive effort.
Adrien Moerman is still sidelined.
Tip: 1 (-2.0) at 1.95 with bet365
(Price correct at 31/10/2019, 10:30 CET, could have changed)
Crvena Zvezda – Khimki
Two teams with opposite records face off in their second games this week as Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade (1-4) hosts Khimki Moscow Region (4-1) on Thursday of Round 6. Zvezda started the week with a tough 85-70 loss in Istanbul against Anadolu Efes and now returns to Belgrade to try to snap its three-game losing streak. On the other side of the spectrum, Khimki pulled off a solid 103-86 home win against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens to make for two wins in a row as it aims to keep in touch with the standings leaders.
Zvezda is in the middle of a losing streak and it will need all the help it can get from its fervent fans at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall to try to turn things around. The hosts currently rank third-to-last in offensive production (70.8 ppg.) and needs the likes of Billy Baron, Charles Jenkins and Dejan Davidovac to get more involved in trying to produce more points. On the other hand, if big man Ongjen Kuzmic, who recently returned after a serious car crash last summer, can get up to speed quickly, Zvezda will have an elite power player and rebounder to shore up its defense. That’s helpful against a Khimki team that ranks in the top four in two-point (56.2%), three-point (40.8%) and free throw (84.2%) accuracy.
Derrick Brown is still unavailable while Mo Faye is doubtful against Khimki.
Head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis has found the winning formula despite getting players back from injury little by little. Khimki boasts the second-best offense in the league (88.8 ppg.) led by superscorer Alexey Shved, who ranks second individually with 22.6 points on average. He is also on 6.4 assists, fourth-best in the competition. The Russian team has the offensive part all figured out, so defense will be a key for this game, especially in such a hot atmosphere. Zvezda’s fans can push their team like few others, and create big momentum if the hosts manage to score in two or three consecutive possessions. Khimki will be all about preventing that.
Evgeny Valiev, Egor Vialtsev, Timofey Mozgov and Petr Gubanov are still out with injuries.
Tip: Over 158.0 at 1.90 with bet365
(Price correct at 31/10/2019, 10:30 CET, could have changed)
News Source: Euroleague.net
Basketball tips: Livetipster
