Armani Jeans Milano hosts Efes Pilsen in an important early season battle between two teams with some history between them. Milano and Efes met in the 1996 Korac Cup finals, which Efes won by a single point after tow games for its first European trophy. But the focus on Wednesday will be a lot more modern as both teams eagerly hunt for victory. Milano comes into the game in rough shape as injuries have depleted a roster that already struggled last week on the road against the reigning champs. CSKA handed Milano a 90-64 loss last week and now Milano could take the floor without two of its most important players. Guard Massimo Bulleri is sidelined with a finger injury and big man Pape Sow is questionable and suffering a foot injury in the Italian League. Moreover, small forward Luca Vitali remains out with a knee problem. Meanwhile Efes opened its Euroleague season with a narrow 61-60 home win over Partizan Belgrade. Efes is also banged up. Center Mario Kasun has a wrist injury and is out, while former Milano shooter Preston Shumpert is a question mark with an ankle injury. Kasun’s absence hurt the club last week as it was outrebounded 20-43. The bright news came in the form of Milos Vujanic, who paced the offense with 17 points for his highest scoring Euroleague game in three-and-a-half years. Vujanic will join forces with Charles Smith, Bootsy Thornton and Ender Arslan to challenge the Milano backcourt of David Hawkins, Jobey Thomas, Yohann Sangare and sharpshooter Marco Mordente. 

Milan lost 2 very important players for this game who were doing a result for them. Without Bulleri who is brain of this team and Pope Saw I see really small chances for Milan to survive in this game. Sure this game is important for them but Italian home courts are not so strong. I can't see where AJ Milano can hurt Efes Pilsen roster which looks very solid even without Shumpert (he is doubtful for this game) and Kasun (needs surgery and will miss entire season).

Efes Pilsen with Vujanic, Thornton, Ch.Smith, Peker, Kakiouzis on the roster looks like a true favourite of this game. They have advantage on all positions over AJ Milano and team is used to play without Shumpert and Kasun so no troubles for away team. Also I expect Efes to be very motivated for this match because they need to win at least 2 away games to feel safe in a fight for Top-16 place and Milan is the easiest away for them in this group because trip to Greece and Serbia could be really difficult and could end with losses, and there is no need to talk about games in Madrid against Real and in Moscow against Euroleague champions.

Efes currently showing good offensive power in away games in TBL championship. They score almost 90 pts per game and it's not big deal to score so many points when you have deep roster and so great snipers as Vujanic, Smith and Thornton. With big guys under rim Efes should dictate this game tempo, scenario and outcome. I would not be suprised with confident Efes Pilsen win by 10-15 pts in Italy this evening. However it's recommended to take care about stake size because Turkish teams in away games are always unpredictable.

Prediction: AJ Milano 66 - 78 Efes Pilsen

Pick: Efes Pilsen (-2.5) @ 1.90 Power Paddy

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