Žalgiris

Kauno Žalgiris will step into this match after a great away victory against the well-strengthened Belgrade Crvena Zvezda team with a score of 75-69. The 19-year-old Rokas Jokubaitis spent 30 minutes on the court in the mentioned match and was one of the key players of the team. Indeed, the young player, who is playing excellently this season, has become quite an important part of the team, as S. Vasturia completely fails to meet expectations and often does not play reliably in the minutes he receives.

The biggest downside for Žalgiris is precisely Vasturia's poor performance and the lack of players in the small forward position, as P. Garino, acquired during the offseason, still cannot play. Rumors are circulating that the team is looking for a small forward who could fill this position until the mentioned P. Garino returns to the lineup. However, for now, they have to make do with what they have. In the last match against Crvena Zvezda, the team was excellently compensated by the Lithuanian trio – L. Lekavičius, M. Grigonis, and R. Jokubaitis, whose presence on the court at the same time made Žalgiris' game fast, efficient, and very attractive to the eye.

Although many basketball experts questioned M. Schiller's defensive methods and highlighted it as the team's weakest point, in the 3 matches played, the team has allowed an average of only 69 points per game, which is one of the best results in the league. It would be naive to expect that Anadolu Efes will also be held under 70 points, as the main driving force of the Turks is their fast and individually very capable guards, who will undoubtedly cause a lot of problems for both L. Lekavičius and other players defending them.

Anadolu Efes

Anadolu Efes started the season without last season's EuroLeague MVP, S. Larkin. Perhaps this led to such a disbalance, resulting in 2 consecutive losses. Of course, they played against strong teams, but the game itself looked really poor and uncoordinated. A different picture emerged in the last match played by Anadolu Efes against the Berlin Alba team. We saw the offense that Anadolu Efes used to punish opponents last season and crushed Alba with a score of 93-72.

Anadolu Efes has many individually strong players, both in the guard line and among the big men. If neither Dunston nor Pleiss will have a significant advantage under the basket against J. Lauvergne, it is hard to imagine how Žalgiris will manage to stop V. Micic or R. Beaubois. Lukas Lekavičius and Rokas Jokubaitis, who played excellently in the last match, lack the height and experience to effectively stop the fast, accurate, and experienced opposing guards.

Prediction

Since it is still the beginning of the season and both teams are still finding their game, predicting the winner of this duel is quite difficult. It would not be surprising if either the well-performing Žalgiris in the EuroLeague wins or if Anadolu Efes dominates and wins by a double-digit margin. However, it is quite obvious that Anadolu Efes will likely have one of their better offensive games of the season, as the team's advantages are quite clear, and if properly utilized, we will likely see at least 80 points. Žalgiris is also not weak in offense, playing smart, fast basketball, so they should reach their scoring average against Anadolu Efes, which does not demonstrate impressive defense either.