Euroleague Tips with Previews

• Zenit has won all four previous games against Zalgiris, including a 75-83 victory in Kaunas in last season.

Zalgiris Kaunas (0-1) comes off a 12-point road loss in Round 1 and hopes to bounce back in front of its diehard fans at the magnificent Zalgirio Arena. Janis Strelnieks (21) was its top scorer against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 1, followed by Emmanuel Mudiay (12), Niels Giffey (8) and Lukas Lekavicius (8). Zenit St Petersburg held on for a 69-70 road victory against UNICS Kazan in Round 1. It was the only EuroLeague team to win on the road in the competition’s opening round. Conner Frankamp (18) led Zenit in scoring and Billy Baron (17) and Jordan Loyd (10) also scored in double digits. Zenit is undefeated against Zalgiris in EuroLeague action – four wins in as many games. Last season, Zenit downed Zalgiris 75-83 in Kaunas behind 20 points from Austin Hollins and went on to defeat the Lithuanian powerhouse 77-65 in St Petersburg with 15 points each from Mateusz Ponitka and Arturas Gudaitis.

Panathinaikos OPAP Athens (0-1) started the 2021-22 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague campaign with a 75-63 road loss at the hands of AS Monaco and returns home to finally meet its fans at OAKA in what should be a very special showdown in the Greek capital. Ioannis Papapetrou led Panathinaikos in Monaco with 16 points, Daryl Macon added 13 and Georgios Papagiannis pulled down 11 rebounds for the Greens.

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (1-0) defeated Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 61-57 in Round 1 a hard-fought battle. DyShawn Pierre led Fenerbahce in scoring with 13 points and Devin Booker and Jan Vesely each scored 7 for the Turkish powerhouse. These teams have faced each other 30 times since the turn of the century. Panathinaikos leads Fenerbahce 16-14 and is 13-3 at home in those games. Last season, the Greens prevailed 82-68 in Athens behind 28 points from Nemanja Nedovic, who buried 7-of-12 shots from beyond the arc.

• Maccabi and Zvezda have won six games apiece in their EuroLeague meetings this century.

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (1-0) looks to build on a winning start to the season after it rallied in the final minutes to edge FC Bayern Munich 69-68 in front of a sellout crowd at Menora Mivtachim Arena. Maccabi can count on a similar, if not better, atmosphere when Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade (0-1) enters the building on Thursday night. Maccabi trailed 57-65 midway through the fourth quarter, but a 12-3 run which Scottie Wilbekin capped with the go-ahead foul shots allowed the Israeli champs to prevail. Wilbekin led the way with 28 points, John DiBartolomeo added 8 and James Nunnally 7.

Zvezda overcame injuries but ended up falling 61-57 on the road at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul. Nikola Ivanovic led Zvezda with 16 points, while Nikola Kalinic and Nate Wolters each had 9. Maccabi has a 5-1 home record against Zvezda and took last season’s showdown in Tel Aviv 81-76.

• Barcelona is 5-3 all-time against Bayern, but Bayern swept Barcelona last season.

After narrowly coming up short on the road at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in its season opener, FC Bayern Munich (0-1) will look to get in the win column when it hosts its first game this season at Audi Dome. However, it will be a difficult task against last season’s runner-up, FC Barcelona (1-0), which started the season strong by slamming the EuroLeague’s other German club, ALBA Berlin.

Bayern has reasons for optimism; it should have more players healthy than last week when Coach Trinchieri only had eight players in his rotation. Moreover, Bayern swept its regular-season series against Barcelona last season. Coach Jasikevicius also has reasons to feel good as he flies to Munich. No team looked sharper than Barcelona in Round 1 and no player was more productive than Nikola Mirotic with 22 points on perfect shooting plus 5 rebounds in 17 minutes. Mirotic missed both games against Bayern last season.