Great Britain vs. Israel

Claiming a victory over Great Britain used to be a foregone conclusion, but on Saturday Israel will be entering its must-win EuroBasket 2009 qualifier in Liverpool as an underdog.

"We were a disgrace and I apologize to the State of Israel," guard Raviv Limonad said after the humbling defeat at the hands of the Czechs. "The campaign, however, is not over yet. We must win in England, although it won't be easy to lift our confidence and level of play in such a short time."

Very strange line here. Great Britain is 7 points favorite against good balanced and experienced Bosnia team which has advantage in all aspects of basketball game but don't have L.Deng in their roster. In my opinion this handicap is set only because of Luol Deng factor. Great Britain could be not such confident favourite against Bosnia even at home. Because with Teletovic, Bajramovic, Bremer and other quite solid  level players (comparing to UK players) Bosnia is stronger team. Deng is a great addition and big talent for sure but -7 points is too much.

France at this moment is not a team we have known before. Yes they still have Parker in the roster but according to press many players decided not to play for NT because of bad chemistry inside the team. This year France did not play with seriuos opponents so far and managed to win only 4 games against Czech , Latvia (friendlies) and poor Belgium (1 round of qualies) all at home and against Georgia in friendly tournament at Latvia. The San Antonio Spurs superstar was not expected to arrive in Turkey until  Wednesday morning because of personal commitments in Paris. I can't understand how France can be ready for this game with such attitude of their leader. Also according to some reports from their game in Ukraine their level of play is not good. 

Latvia v FYR of Macedonia

Latvia has important missings for this match. S.Valters, Skele and Grafs are highly doubtful for this match, Jahovic awaits for protecting mask to be able to play today while K.Valters also is questionable according to esports.lv portal. With so many injuries I can't see Latvia so strong favourites against very dangerous Macedonia team.