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Union Olimpija Ljubljana - CSKA Moscow Two teams coming off big Week 2 wins square off on Wednesday in Group A when Union Olimpija hosts CSKA Moscow in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. Olimpija reinforced its reputation as a giant killer – especially at home – when it dumped Olympiacos 87-78 last week. This game could be a true test for Olimpija, to see if the club can become a force – at least at home – and challenge for the Top 16. One of the more interesting head-to-head matchups worth keeping an eye on pits Dragic against J.R. Holden and Papaloukas. Also, Olimpija's 2.20-meter center Begic will face Alexey Savrasenko, while the explosive Milic and hard-working Zupan test themselves against Smodis, Marcus Goree and David Andersen. Rarely will CSKA not be a favorite when it takes the floor this season and that will be the case this week, but CSKA also cannot make the mistake of underestimating Olimpija, as so many teams have paid for doing in the past.
CSKA have full roster available for this match and honestly speaking I don't see any chances for Olimpija to compete against CSKA rival. Moscow team have advantage in all basketball game aspects and only character could help Olimpija to lose with respectable margin. Their game built around Milic, Taylor, Hukic and Dragic and CSKA will simply destroy their game by defending against these players. Also slovenian team have big problems in offense this year and it would be extremely difficult for them to score 70 points into CSKA basket today against Moscow team defense. When deal will come into bench players I see clear advantage for CSKA where such players as Papaloukas, Goree, Siskauskas comes from the bench.. I predict one-sided game here because of many factors. CSKA should be capable of building 15 points advantage early in the game and than they will try to hold it until end. I would not be surprised to see 20+ pts win for CSKA here. But it is always risky to play such handicaps in away matches especially on such hot arena as Union Olimpija have so medium-low stakes are adviced. Expected score: Olimpija 64 - 79 CSKA
Pick: CSKA -11 @ 1.90 3/10 PinnacleSports  VS 
Montepaschi vs Zalgiris
156.5 total line is not right in my opinion. Zalgiris is not a team which can stop Montepaschi superb offense in away match and lithuanians also can't force italians to play low tempo game like CSKA did last week. More fair line according to my estimation should 86.5-72.5 (159 in total) and even looking at this line over looks good because both temps have long and productive bench with many players able to score points while starters sitting on the bench.
Zalgiris will miss Beard today but that should be not a problem because Tanoka is looking terrible this season (too old.. to play on high level). Zalgiris scored 74 points in all season games so far and even tough Montepaschi defense should not stop them in offense. I expekt Zalgiris to lose this game by 12-17 points today because this team with this coach can't play against top Euroleague teams even with quite good roster.
Expected score: Montepaschi 89 - 74 Zalgiris  VS 
Brose Baskets Bamberg - Real Madrid
Both teams tend to positional basketball, and most importantl that is such basketball they show their best qualities. Therefore don't expect from Madrid to play fast basketball (which they also know how to play). Rather Real will accept Brose style and will try to win by using their physical superiority (well, the Germans have no such power as Spaniards) and a long bench. It is noteworthy that both teams have significant losses: from the Brose Okulaja is highly doubtful, and for Real Bullock and Hamilton are out. In away games Real often play from defense and in such games they rarely allow more than 66-67 points. Till now Brose did not allow anyone including Panathinaikos to score over 70 points into their basket so it's really worth to expect defensive game today because both teams tending not to allow 70 points.
My line for this game would be 66-72,5 that at 6 points below the bookies line. So my advice would to try under for this match. Bet365.com is slow as always about moving their line down to 141.5-142.5 and that's why enjoy having account there (Read bet365.com review to know more)
Expected score: Brose Baskets 64 - 73 Real Madrid Pick: Under 143.5 @ 1.83 4/10 Bet365.com Please register or login to see predictions for other matches
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