Euroleague Basketball Predictions, News & Injury list

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Crvena Zvezda – Zalgiris

Zvezda (1-1) aims to stay perfect at home while hosting unbeaten Zalgiris (2-0) in the first game of the season’s first double-round week on Tuesday. The hosts come off a resounding 90-73 victory over Baskonia in which Jordan Loyd scored 30 points as the Round 2 MVP. Zalgiris beat undermanned Khimki 70-84 on Saturday as Marius Grigonis scored 21 points. The visitors now aims for their third straight road win to start the season in hopes of retaining a share of first place. Zvezda will aim to prove there’s only one Z team that’s top on its home floor.

Solid 40.7% three-point shooting has accounted for 43.1% of Zvezda’s scoring through two games, however four players are contributing at least 2.5 turnovers each to the team’s league-leading 17.5 average. If more of those possessions result in shots instead of turnovers, Zvezda should thrive at home, especially with new point guard Langston Hall dishing as well as he did – 11 assists – against Baskonia. If Kuzmic gets more rebounding help from Duop Reath and Marko Jagodic-Kuridza, Zvezda will be in a position to run, too, against a Zalgiris team that prefers to play half-court defense.

Zalgiris allows just 68.5 points per game, second-best in the league so far, based in part on keeping teams off the free throw line, which might help in stopping Loyd, who has thrived there so far. Likewise, the visitors will want to mind their rebounding with Kuzmic on the loose and their own Joffrey Lauvergne having sat out Saturday’s win. Expect a lot of ball control from Lekavicius, Grigonis and Thomas Walkup as Zalgiris tries to stretch Zvezda’s defense until more open shots come available late in possessions.

Zalgiris Kaunas announced on Thursday that center Joffrey Lauvergne has tested positive for COVID-19. He missed the team’s Round 2 game.

Tip: 1 (-5.5) at 1.90 with bet365
(Price correct at 13/10/2020, 8:15 CET, subject to change)

ALBA Berlin – Efes Anadolu

One team will break into the win column belatedly when ALBA (0-2) hosts Efes (0-2) on Tuesday in the German capital. After falling at home in a Round 2 blowout to archrival Munich and now facing a murderers’ row of opponents to finish the month, ALBA needs a confidence-building victory as quickly as possible. Home losses to Zenit and archrival Fenerbahce have put last season’s runaway standings leader, Efes, in a position of having to get something started amid twin road games in the season’s first double-round week.

ALBA has to do something to shore up its interior defense, which is letting opposing teams make an easy 63.3% of those two-point shots. Taking care of the ball will help, too, with opponents having nabbed 17 steals from ALBA over two games. While this young team comes together, veterans Jayson Granger, Peyton Siva, Luke Sikma and Niels Giffey will need to be counted on to limit turnovers and help keep opponents away from the basket – or else ALBA will be in a position of having to outgun other teams to win.

Shane Larkin missed the first two games of the season due to injury.

Tip: 2 (-7.5) at 1.83 with bet365
(Price correct at 13/10/2020, 8:15 CET, subject to change)

Villeurbanne – Panathinaikos

ASVEL (0-2) seeks a first win this season in its home opener while Panathinaikos (1-1) has a chance to get revenge for a last-minute loss in Villeurbanne almost exactly a year ago. The French club lost its second straight road game, 87-73 at mighty Milan, in part due to high turnovers. Panathinaikos lost its derby with Olympiacos at home 71-78 after struggling on the boards and despite 15 points from Marcus Foster. This game could be affected by the cases of two unnamed COVID-19 cases announced by ASVEL on Saturday.

Paul Lacombe has missed ASVEL’s Round 2 game.

ASVEL lost a close defensive battle at Valencia by 2 points but was much further from Milan, losing by 14, despite scoring more. As such, with only three players – Fall, Norris Cole and Amine Noua – having reached 10 points in scoring so far, the hosts will want to double down on defense and press their 16.0-to-11.5 advantage in assists over Panathinaikos. ASVEL should also go inside more. The team ranks first in two-point accuracy (58.7%) but still makes fewer of those shots than all but five other EuroLeague teams. There’s gold near the basket, and with Fall, Noua and others thriving there, ASVEL’s first win could well come right around the rim.

The names have not been confirmed but ASVEL is facing 2 or 3 cases of Covid-19.

The Greens won while outrebounding host Khimki by 7 in Round 1 despite lower shooting percentages, and they lost to Olympiacos at home while losing the battle of the boards by 5. That puts the focus on Papagiannis, Papapetrou and Konstantinos Mitoglou to lead the charge in Villeurbanne against an ASVEL team in the lower half of the rebounding rankings. The Greens are still looking for Nemanja Nedovic to truly join the scoring duo of Papapetrou and Marcus Foster. He and Papapetrou have hit just 3 of 22 three-pointers between them, a big part of the team’s league-low 22.9% from behind the arc. As soon as the Greens break that slump, they’ll be much more dangerous.

Pierre Jackson has missed the first two games of the season.

Tip: Awaiting odds

Baskonia – Zenit

The game has been postponed.

Zenit announced earlier this week that four players and four members of the coaching staff tested positive for COVID-19. Coaches Xavi Pascual, Iñigo Zorzano Pascual, Sergey Voznyuk and Yaroslav Yalovchuk and players Mateusz Ponitka, Igor Volkhin, Billy Baron and Kevin Pangos come on top of the positive results already announced for players Arturas Gudaitis, Anton Pushkov, Vladislav Trushkin, Austin Hollins and masseur Andrei Kozlov. All told, Zenit has positive results for the presence of COVID-19 in eight players, four coaches and one masseur.

Valencia – Barcelona

This Mediterranean coastal derby pits unbeaten Valencia (2-0) against its neighbor to the north, Barcelona (1-1), in a battle of teams that know each other quite well. Valencia has not left Spain through two victories, the last an impressive 77-93 thrashing of Real Madrid on the road as Bojan Dubljevic hit 6 three-pointers among 24 points in 19 minutes. Barcelona suffered its first loss at Zenit, 74-70, despite 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists from Nikola Mirotic.

Valencia adjusts well on offense and will likely get its points at home, so keeping a lid on Mirotic, Davies and sharp-shooting Alex Abrines would be a priority for the hosts. That’s easier said than done, of course, and would start with forcing Calathes into places where his passes are less likely to lead directly to good shots. Getting the ball out of his hands makes it more likely that Valencia’s help defense can accomplish what few teams can when Barcelona is in rhythm.

Joan Sastre will be sidelined for several weeks with a partial tear to the internal lateral ligament of his right knee.

The one-two punch of Valencia centers Dubljevic and Mike Tobey, especially when they are making threes, forces an adjustment from most teams. Mirotic and Brandon Davies have the agility to guard the perimeter, but they will still have to rebound or get help from their teammates, because Valencia has been better by 6.5 boards per game so far than Barca. Valencia is a little vulnerable to assist-making opponents who get the ball inside, and that’s where Nick Calathes and Thomas Heurtel can hurt the hosts, especially if Barca rebounds and they run with Higgins and Adam Hanga on the wings.

Head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius and assistant Darius Maskoliunas tested positive for COVID-19 and missed the team’s Round 2 game.

Tip: Over 157.5 at 1.95 with bet365
(Price correct at 13/10/2020, 8:15 CET, subject to change)

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News Source: Euroleague.net
Basketball tips: Livetipster