Zalgiris
Zalgiris Kaunas will enter this game on the back of a great 75-69 away win against a well-seasoned Belgrade Crvena Zvezda team. The 19-year-old Rokas Jokubaitis spent 30 minutes on the court and was one of the team's key players in that game. Indeed, the youngster, who has been playing well this season, has become quite an important part of the team, as Vasturia has not been living up to expectations at all and has not been playing the minutes he has been getting reliably.
Zalgiris' biggest disadvantage is the poor play of Vasturia and the lack of players in the light wing position, as P. Garino, who was acquired in the off-season, is still not available. There are rumours that the team is looking for a light wing player to fill this position until the return of the aforementioned P. Garino to the roster. Anyway, we have to make do with what we have. In the last game against Crvena Zvezda, the Lithuanian trio of L. Lekavičius, M. Grigonis and R. Jokubaitis made up for it by playing fast, efficient and very attractive.
Although many basketball experts have questioned Schiller's defensive methods and highlighted it as the team's weakest point, the team is averaging only 69 points in 3 games played, which is one of the best results in the league. It would be naive to expect that Anadolu Efes will be able to hold them back from scoring 70 points as well, as the main Turkish engine is their fast and individually very strong defenders, which will definitely cause a lot of problems for Lekavicius and the other players who will be defending them.
Anadolu Efes
Anadolu Efes The team started the season without S. Larkin, the MVP of the previous Euroleague season. This may have been the reason for the imbalance, with 2 losses in a row. Of course, we played against capable teams, but the game itself seemed really poor and uncoordinated. The picture was different in the last game played by Anadolu Efes against Alba Berlin. We saw the offensive performance that Anadolu Efes used to punish their opponents last season, beating Alba 93-72.
Anadolu Efes has a lot of individually capable players, both in the backcourt and up top. If neither Dunston nor Pleiss will have a big advantage under the basket against Lauvergne, it's hard to see how Zalgiris will be able to stop V. Micic or R. Beaubois. Lukas Lekavicius and Rokas Jokubaitis, who played well in the last game, lack the height and experience to effectively stop fast, good-scoring and experienced guards.
Forecast
As it is still early in the season and both teams are still finding their game, it is quite difficult to predict the winner of this duel. Neither a victory by Zalgiris, which is looking good in the Euroleague, nor a double-digit victory by Anadolu Efes would be surprising. However, it is quite obvious that Anadolu Efes will probably have one of the better games of the season on offense, as the team's strengths are quite obvious and if they are used properly, we will probably get at least 80 points. Zalgiris is also not pedestrian on offense, playing smart, fast basketball, so Anadolu Efes, which is not showing the same impressive defence, should be able to average its points.
Over 153.5 points, 1.85 kof., betsafe
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