A pair of national champions from neighboring countries will clash in a crucial Group B battle on Wednesday when Asseco Prokom Sopot hosts Zalgiris Kaunas. The Polish champs are coming off a big home win over SLUC Nancy, led by Dan Ewing’s 32 points, which improved its record to 1-1. Zalgiris meanwhile slipped to 0-2 with a 26-point loss to Montepaschi. Zalgiris led at halftime, but scored only 24 points in the entire second half as the game slipped away. Making matters worse for the Lithuanian champs, they will compete in Sopot without starting point guard Willie Deane, who suffered a broken nose in last week’s contest. Head coach Gintaras Krapikas will look to a trio of young guard to lead his team this week. Teenager Zygimantas Janavicius and Mantas Kalnietis figure to start with Rolandas Alijevas, who made his Euroleague debut last week, serving as their prime backup. They must improve the standard of play, since Zalgiris ranks last in the Euroleague with just 10 steals and it has committed 44 turnovers – more than any other team. 

BETTING ANALYSIS

Prokom is sure favourite in this match because they are healthy, they have full roster and they have home crowd support. Logan and Burke were rested on weekend for this match and it shows how important is this game for polish team. Few day ago R.Kurtinatis joined a team as a coach assistant so he will bring many information about Zalgiris because he was able to watch their games. Prokom has no problems before this match except weak bench. As I said week before they have only 7 players of Euroleague level but so far it was enough to hold handicap in both starting matches.

Zalgiris will play without R.Varda and W.Deane, also E.Zukauskas looks badly on Eruoleague level. J.Maciulis still far away from his best conditions however Janavicius looks confident on playmayker position (as for me even better than W.Deane). But young Zalgiris players still lack experience on such high level and can't play whole 40 minutes to help team to stay in the game. Also Zalgiris left many emotions in SEB Baltic League on Sunday and it tells about inexperience of coaching staff. Also trip to Poland ended with lost baggage and it is still uknown if Zalgiris was able to train in Prokom arena.

It's not easy to predict the scenario of this game because Prokom is unpredictable team but I expect low tempo game with hard defense from both sides but sooner or later Zalgiris will allow Prokom to make a killing run. Prokom is very explosive team in most of their games they have 1 or 2 quarters when they score 26-32 pts per quarter and stop oponents under 18 points. This allows them to win games and I expect this trend to continue today and they will win by 8-14 points.

Handicap is set with a bit different estimations that Prokom will win by 5-10 pts but I think with low stake it is worth to try more confident win of Prokom Trefl. Points difference could be very important at the end of regular season for these team so this looks like a small advantage over the line.

 

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