TAU Ceramica - Alba Berlin

MATCH PREVIEW

Two teams with different goals in this year's Euroleague will battle each other in Vitoria, Spain, on Wednesday evening when Tau Ceramica welcomes Alba Berlin in a Group C clash at Fernando Buesa Arena. Tau, which reached the Final Four in each of the last four season, is the only team unbeaten in Group C at 2-0, while Alba, in its first Euroleague season since 2004, is right behind at 1-1. It will be a special game for Alba top gun Casey Jacobsen, who helped Tau reach 2006 Final Four. Jacobsen is one of the weapons that Alba can offer at the wing spots, alongside scoring machine Julius Jenkins, do-it-all swingman Immanuel McElroy and versatile forward Aleksandar Nadjfeji. McElroy is set to have a key matchup against another aggressive and intense player in Pete Mickeal. Meanwhile, Jenkins will test his scoring skills against Igor Rakocevic, a former Alphondo Ford top scorer trophy winner, who had 20 points in the first half of his only Euroleague home game this season. Jacobsen will have a tough test against former teammate and Tau captain Sergi Vidal, a defensive stopper ready to shut down anyone. The point guard battle will be equally interesting, as Tau offers two-time All-Euroleague second team selection Pablo Prigioni and up-and-coming playmaker Mustafa Shakur. Both players will have intense battles against athletic playmakers Steffen Hamann and Rashad Wright. Alba is set to travel to Vitoria without big man Patrick Femerling, which means that the entire team will have to work hard to stop all-Euroleague center Tiago Splitter.

 

BETTING ANALYSIS

Tau offense started to showing up in last 2 games with 90 pts performance against Olimpija and Real Madrid. The main reasons of such improvement is that Splitter, Prigioni and Vidal have returned into the roster, while such players as San Emeterio, Teletovic finaly found they place on the court and started to score 9-12 pts each. Add to this Rakocevic who is in great sporting form so far and home crowd support which make Tau Ceramica crazy.

Alba will have 3rd away game in a row and should be a bit tired to show their defensive abilitites. Alba is not super-slow team and they like to play in medium-high tempo so Tau should feel comfortable with ALBA style.

At home Tau Ceramica always was 85+ points team but because of poor offensive start of the season bookmakers started to understimate their offensive power which is showing up these days. Handicap is set more or less fair but I would not be suprised with Tau covering the spread by using hard to break defense. That's why total line is looking more or less fair me because I expect 154 pts game but with more solid offensive game from Tau Ceramica.

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