 Nancy - FC Barcelona Regal
MATCH PREVIEW
History will be made in French basketball on Thursday at 20:30 CET, as Sluc Nancy will make his Euroleague debut against Regal FC Barcelona, the 2003 champion. Nancy has reached the French League final in each of the last four seasons, but only managed to gain a Euroleague spot when it won the title last season. Meanwhile, FC Barcelona starts a new Euroleague season with high hopes, as even when the club won the Euroleague title in 2003, it has only returned to the Final Four once since that moment. Barcelona is deep and strong everywhere, but especially at point guard, with Jaka Lakovic, Andre Barrett and Victor Sada ready to produce. Sada is an incredible athlete with outstanding court sense, while Barrett is set to make his Euroleague debut and show his driving skills and determination. As such, Lakovic will see time at both backcourt spots this season, especially at off-guard. Nancy has been trying John Cox as point guard, since T.J. Parker is out for the season. Its only pure playmaker is Serge Tchicamboud, unexperienced at this level, but Nancy also features do-it-all, versatile swingman Ricardo Greer. He can drive any defender crazy with his ballhandling, court sense and basketball IQ, especially he plays alongside brother Jeff Greer, an outstanding slasher with a nice combination of athleticism and know-how.
BETTING ANALYSISBarcelona after US tour should play for result here and I hardly see them playing open game. In ACB league Barcelona allows only 61.5 pts per game and using very low pace of the game to achieve needed result. Sometimes game pace is ultra-slow with 145-155 possesions per game and so far their offense was not showing because their guards like Basile, Lakovic and Navarro are far from their best form. Some kinds of progress were seen during US tour but don't forget that that was NBA basketball with different rules. Nancy also looks very good on defensive end this year. In most their games this season their defense was working well. They can can stop Barcelona under 80 points and taking into consideration that game tempo should be much slower than it was in LNB league, I think that this game could be low-scoring for both teams. Most bookies has 153.5 pts line which is a bit too high in my opinion. I would set 149.5 pts (72-77.5) line here however my own estimations are even lower. I expect Nancy to score in the 64-74 pts range and Barcelona should find a way to score in the 73-80 points because of Nancy ability to allow opponents runs by 10-15 pts during a game. All in one I expect this game to end with 140-148 pts, as for the outcome class and experience should prevail here. Prediction: Nancy 68 - 76 BarcelonaPick: Under 154.5 @ 1.88 Expekt
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