Montenegro - New Zealand (1.52 x 2.67, betsafe)
One of the first games of the day tomorrow, where the two teams that lost their first games in Group F will meet. Montenegro lost 60-85 to Greece, while New Zealand lost 94-102 to Brazil in the points race. Below we will look at the two teams individually and give our predictions for this match.
Montenegro
Montenegro had no chance against one of the strongest teams in the championship in their first group match and suffered a crushing defeat. Not only are the Greeks a well-balanced team with a good defence and an experienced core, but they are also very tough opponents for this Montenegrin team.
High scorers suspended
The Montenegrins have a very tall squad with an excellent front line that would be difficult for most teams to beat, but the Greeks had their answers to this Montenegrin weapon. Vucevic, the Orlando Magic's centre forward who had the best season of his career, scored just 12 points in 23 minutes and had a rather poor shooting performance, hitting just 6 of 14 shots. Another important frontline player, B. Dubljevic, also had a bad game, hitting only 2 of 5 shots and was completely shut down.
Tomorrow will be a completely different game, because unlike the Greek team, New Zealand's front line is one of the weakest in the whole championship and the Oceanians will certainly have a lot of problems with Montenegro's front line.
Friendly matches
The Montenegrin national team has played only four friendlies in the current preparatory cycle. Only one was won, but the opponents were also very strong: 72-80 against France, 77-85 against Argentina, 69-80 against Brazil, and in the last match, Poland won 70-65. In all of them, N. Vucevic, D. Needham and B. Dubjlewicz were the main leaders of the team, and they are expected to make a bigger contribution in tomorrow's game.
New Zealand
Unlike Montenegro, the New Zealand team was a serious challenge to Brazil, considered by many experts to be the second best team in the group. The New Zealanders, who were tied with the Brazilians for two periods, broke down after the break and lost the third period by 16 points. The Brazilians did not play well, but there were too many holes in the New Zealand defence for an experienced team like Brazil not to exploit.
The main leaders of the team in the first game were: C. Webster (19 pts., 6 reps., 6 res. passes), I. Fotu (17 pts., 5 reps.), Shea Lli (16 pts., 3 reps., 6 res. passes). Although the team shot just 41% from the field, they scored 94 points. This just shows once again how fast and invidious the New Zealand team is in basketball.
73 shots from the field, 29 free throws and 15 errors - these "cosmic" numbers were visible in New Zealand's first game report. This style of play is good for trying to challenge some of the weak defensive teams, but it is highly unlikely that it will work tomorrow.
Montenegro, as mentioned earlier, is one of the tallest and most physical teams in the world, and their physicality and height will allow them to get good positions in defence and knock the Zealanders off their feet. It's also hard to imagine who will be able to slow down the impressive Montenegrin front line under the basket, so the coach definitely has a big headache to find solutions before tomorrow's game.
Friendly matches
As the marathon of friendly matches came to an end, New Zealand's game gradually improved. Although the New Zealand team has only 2 wins in 7 friendlies, the team can be praised for its progress against really strong teams from Serbia, Italy and France. New Zealand shared the victory with Japan 89-99 and 104-87, lost 88-122 and 100-103 to Canada, lost 81-95 to France, lost 78-88 to Serbia and beat Italy 88-82.
Match prediction
The bookmakers consider Montenegro the favourite in tomorrow's match between Montenegro and New Zealand. Watching the two teams' matches, it might have seemed that New Zealand was the tougher and looked the better side, but it would be a big mistake to think so. Brazil is one of the most experienced teams in the championship, with a lot of veterans, so for this young and energetic, fast basketball-playing Zealand team, Brazil is quite a good opponent, while for the Montenegrins the Greek team is a very bad opponent, as the Greeks have all the answers to the Montenegrins' main weapon. The Montenegrins are more physical, taller, more tactful and have more high-level experience, so in a very important match, a victory is a must in order to go further. It is very likely that the Montenegrin team will put things right in 2-3 games and win by double digits. -4 with odds of 1.9 is a very good pick in our eyes for this game.
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