Betting Corner: a gift from Kazan and a noticeable trend in Zenit-Barcelona games / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Srdjan Stevanovic/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images, Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images Credit Srdjan Stevanovic/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images, Pedro Salado/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

After taking one week break, Andreas Blomdahl and Betting Corner return with the best choices for the upcoming EuroLeague round.

FC Barcelona / Schedule

Zenit Saint Petersburg FC BarcelonaFri17:00 CSKA Moscow FC BarcelonaSun15:00

Currently, Andreas correctly predicted 17 out of 26 possible outcomes. A pretty solid record of building upon. However, we remind you to gamble responsibly.

Anadolu Efes Istanbul (12-12) vs Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (11-12)

A very important game for both teams in the chase for a playoff spot.

Efes are coming from a week of winning three games which gave them the right to call themselves the champions of the Turkish Cup.

Three very impressive performances where they beat Fenerbache with 14 points in the final. Shane Larkin will play even though he will also play twice with the national team against Greece.

Maccabi's cup adventure ended in a loss in the semifinal against Hapoel, which saw coach Ioannis Sfairopulos fired. Roman Sorkin will miss the game due to COVID-19, and Angelo Caloiaro is unlikely to play due to an ankle injury.

This won't come as a surprise for those who followed my previous tips. I don't trust Maccabi this season, and they're massively overrated when playing away (3-9 record).

I pinpointed earlier that Efes are just getting better and better, and last week's result clearly indicates that.

Very easy decision for me here. Efes scoring power is so good at the moment, and they will win with double digits.

BET: Anadolu Efes -7.5 @ 1.75

Bitci Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (7-17) vs UNICS Kazan (13-12)

Baskonia did not participate in Copa del Rey therefore, they had one week break. Lamar Peters will miss the game due to a hamstring injury. Unfortunately, they will also be without their head coach Neven Spahija who tested positive for COVID-19.

UNICS, on the other hand, have played several games, and yesterday they lost to Mike James' game-winner in Monaco.

2-pointers this season

54%20,4Points made:20,4Accuracy:54,0%Place in standings:5Record max:27Record min:11Most made 2FGs:Ante ZizicTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

For Baskonia, the season is over in all possible scenarios, and even if they beat Real Betis with 21 points 10 days ago, they've had some poor performances.

One key thing here that I know people don't always agree with is that having 10 days without a game is not optimal. It's a big problem, especially if the opponent has played 3-4 games within the same period.

Yes, a very tough loss for UNICS yesterday, but they're so much better than Baskonia. The second key in this bet is that it's just pure value. If we look against Monaco, UNICS closed at around 2.25 to win the game.

Now we get around 2.00-2.10. Does that basically mean that the traders/bettors think the difference between Baskonia and Monaco is more or less none?

I'll say thank you very much, and this is the best bet of the week. UNICS should be favourites in my book, no doubt at all.

BET: UNICS Kazan win @ 2.05.

Olympiacos Piraeus (14-9) vs AX Armani Exchange Milan (17-7)

The battle between the domestic cup champions!

Olympiacos were crowned champions after beating AEK in the semifinal and a late run against PAO in the final, winning 81-73.

Armani Exchanged managed to claim the title as well after beating Sassari, Brescia, and Tortona in the final. The good news for Milan is after being out for months, Konstantinos Mitoglou looks set to return. Meanwhile, Shavon Shields' timeline is somewhere around mid-March.

I find it very difficult to say which team is the better out of these two, and if they would play a Final Four game on neutral ground, it's as close to 50/50 as it could get.

But this is not the case. We're going to Piraeus, and once again, if you've read my previous articles, you know what I think about Olympiacos playing at home.

The 10-1 record says it all. One of the absolute best home teams in Euroleague, which in terms of handicap should give them around 3.5-4.0 points advantage according to my calculations.

The good news is that we can get a better line than that, which makes my decision easy.

BET: Olympiacos -2.5 @ 1.90.

Zenit St. Petersburg (14-9) vs FC Barcelona (20-5)

Zenit have only played two games in the VTB United League since last time, comfortably beating Zielona Gora and Tsmoki Minsk.

Barcelona is another freshly crowned Cup champion beating Manresa on Friday, Murcia on Saturday, and Real Madrid in the final after a late run.

This bet is very straightforward. Together with Bayern, I have these two teams as the best defensive ones in EuroLeague. Zenit home games average 147 points per game, while Barcelona away contests average 151 points per game. It's worth mentioning that two overtimes games pushed the average a bit.

I'm not going to break down the games one by one, but a clear trend for Barcelona is that when they play away against a team that plays fast and likes to run, they do the same, and we get scores over 160 points.

When playing teams like Zenit, Milan, UNICS, Crvena Zvezda, they're not above 145 points.

As always, Zenit will play their type of basketball, while Barcelona might be a little exhausted and hungover from last weekend's success.

Fun fact: The last four meetings between these two have gone under 151.5 points. If we exclude over time, you can make it six games in a row.

BET: Under 151.5 @ 1.90.

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