Zalgiris - Olimpia Milano, Euroleague 2020-11-20 match preview

PokerioMokykla.com
The 10th round of the Euroleague, where Zalgiris Kaunas will take on local Olimpia Milano on the road. The start of the season has been quite successful for both teams, with both teams starting with victories, and Zalgiris Kaunas at one point even being at the top of the standings. However, recently the situation has changed a bit and the form of both teams has worsened, so this match is of great importance to break the bad streak. We will take a look at both teams and, as usual, at the bottom of the preview you will find the match prediction.
Marius Grigonis Zalgiris

Zalgiris

Zalgiris Kaunas enters this game after a 78-87 home defeat against CSKA Moscow.The game was indeed ambiguous - on the one hand, the team showed character and seemed to be able to turn the game in their favour and pull out a victory. On the other hand, Zalgiris looked unconfident from the start, letting CSKA go ahead by a big margin, so they had to be in a chasing role against one of the best teams in the Euroleague.

In this game, there was a clear change in the team's roster with the addition of veteran Paulius Jankūnas, who handled CSKA's tough edges quite well and had his best game in the Euroleague this season. Obviously, against teams with good defenders like CSKA, Zalgiris' defensive weaknesses only become more pronounced, especially on the guard line. Lukas Lekavicius simply cannot defend against individually skilled opposing defenders, who often outmatch him not only in terms of individual talent but also in terms of height. Anyway, the team should be praised for its fighting spirit and hopefully Schiler will find ways to improve the team's defence, thus helping to cover up some of the players' defensive problems.

Zalgiris has now lost 4 games in a row, and with each defeat it may become more and more difficult to break this streak. The game against CSKA was quite positive, so the game in Milan should be quite tough too, considering that Armani's team will be without one of its key players, M. Delaney.

Olimpia Milano

Olimpia Milano

For Olimpia Milano, this will be only the 6th game in the Euroleague this season, as several games had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The team's last game in the Euroleague was on 6 November against Valencia, which they lost 81-86 after a hard-fought battle. Delaney was unable to play in that game and will miss the Zalgiris game as well.

This season's Milan squad is very different from the line-ups of recent years, with fewer individual players and a team-oriented and individually very strong squad, coached by the well-known Ettore Messina in Europe. The main players of the team are Sh. Shields (13.4 points), S. Rodriguez (14.6 points) and K. Hines (9.8 points), who are the key players in the team's success. After a disappointing start to the season, one of last season's leaders, V. Micov, joined the team in the last round and will only strengthen the team even more.

Forecast

Looking at the line-ups, Olimpia Milano seems to have a definite advantage in almost every position, but as we have seen many times, this factor is far from being the main one in this year's Euroleague. Olimpia hasn't played in the EuroLeague for 2 weeks, so it's likely that they will start a bit slower than usual. Zalgiris, who got the early advantage, have already proved time and time again how dangerous they can be. It should be a tough game, and the +7.5 advantage Zalgiris has is quite big given the circumstances.

Zalgiris +7,5, 1,9 kof., betsafe

If you're interested in following all our reviews, you can find them in the Facebook group Serious Bets.

TOP Bookmakers for Euroleague betting