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CROATIA - GREECE
GRE - LIT 81-71 (18-21, 18-23, 22-16, 13-21)
GRE - ESP 69-74 (17-25, 18-13, 15-13, 19-23)
GRE - BUL 78-77 (19-26, 19-14, 18-17, 22-20) Croatia games::
CRO - BEL 64-58 (6-10, 16-16, 22-18, 20-14)
CRO - LAT 95-79 (20-22,32-19, 17-16, 26-22)
CRO - SER 72-78 (14-19, 20-19, 16-23, 22-17) Greek side was able to qualify from strong group with Spain and Lithuania. Croatians qualified from less difficult group with 2 outsiders Belorus and Latvia by beating both sides. But also they have competed well with Serbia and have shown that they can play with strong teams. But is Greece a strong side here? Yes, they had won against Lithuania but it was a level game in 4th quarter until Lithuanians made few turnovers, than greeks played with Spain but losed, and finally they had difficult game with Bulgarians but won 78-77. In all games they allowed more than 70 points and the same story was in their preparation games. Croatians in 10 quarters with Belorus, Latvia and Serbia scored 19.4 points per quarter (I don't calculate 2 quarters when they scored 6 and 32 points) so their average attacking ability is about 77 points. And if Greece side would show tough defence this game will become unpredictable one because both teams are able to score 70 points but 80 points would be too much. Conclusion: Seems that bookmakers' line is a correct and it's better to skip such games when all outcomes are possible. Predicted score: Croatia 74 76 Greece Recommended Pick: No bet or Greece win with low stakes. Keep these pages free by visiting site sponsors:
ISRAEL - GERMANY
Israel results:
SLO - ISR 73-68 (20-17, 21-12, 16-21, 16-18)
HUN - ISR 68-72 (20-17, 25-13, 9-22, 14-20)
ITA - ISR 64-66 (15-24, 19-16, 12-11, 14-19) Germany results:
TUR - GER 83-45 (25-12, 15-11, 20-6, 23-16)
RUS - GER 81-51 (31-11, 19-9, 17-10, 14-21)
FRA - GER 99-66 (14-26, 37-14, 25-17, 23-9) Israel is shooting only 11.6 3 pointers per game and they are only16th team by this characteristic on this tournament. They have never scored more than 72 points on this tournament and their game depends more on opponents turnovers, their defense and their 2pt shooting perfomance. Seems they don't like fast basketball and I doubt that they will change their tactics today, in they key game of classification round. Why this game is a key game? Because by winning today they probably avoid relegation games for 13-16 places because they have all capabilities to win against Latvia and probably Bulgarians. In 8 of 12 quarters Israel hold their oponents under 19-point mark (14.8 pts per quarter). Sure there were 4 quarters when opponents scored 20, 21, 21 and 25 points but I doubt that today they will allow such scoring in more than 1 quarter. For this game I think that Israel defence can allow up to 65 points. Germany played awful in first group stage, by scoring only about 13 pts per quarter. And their opponents in first game were more open that Israel talking about their game style. Today they will meet tough Isralian defense and I expect their average scoring will be at 13-14 per quarters, and probably in 1 quarter they will score about 18-19 points. In overall I think that Germany will score about 55-57 points. And now let's look into their defense ability. They average currently is 87 points. And this is probably correct defensive stats when they meet open-style opponent like Russia or France. In first game with Turkey on 39' Turkey had only 74 points but per last minute they managed to score 9 points. In preparation games Germans allowed more than 80 points only 2 times. One time 83 points from Latvia and second time from... Israel.. they losed 61-80. So I think that germans are able to hold opponents under 80 points especially close-style teams like Israel. Conclusion: I think that this game should be about 130-135 points and teams would not beat 60 and 80 points like bookmakers offer with this line. But I don't recommend you to put more than medium-low stakes because this game could be decided in first 2 quarters and than teams may forget about defence. Predicted score: Germany 57 - 78 Israel Recommended pick: UNDER 139.5 (medium low-stake) SPAIN - BELARUS
Spain is a class better team with deeper bench and much better than Latvia or Croatia with whom Belorussians have played level games.With class better teams they are not ready to play and according to their coach interview to local newspaper their goal is to stay in class A. And that means that their key game will be last tour game with Hungary, and next semifinal with Germany or Latvia where they will decide their tournaments goals. Today I expect more like training session from both teams. I know that's always tricky to bet on handicaps more than 10 points but here we have a differenct class teams. Predicted score: Spain 78 - 62 Belarus Pick: Spain -12.5 (medium stake) LATVIA - BULGARIA
Both teams are run-and-gun style teams and I expect to see here open basketball game with a lot of 3 pointers and fast breaks. Latvia has allowed more than 19 points in 8 of 12 played quarters and it says a lot about their defensive ability. Bulgarians a bit better in defense but in 11 of 12 quarters they have allowed 236 points. It's about 21.5 per quarter in average. Talking about offensive power I absolutely sure that both teams able to score more than 75 points but winner side could score even more than 83 points. And if both teams will avoid handball-quarters like Latvia had in 4th quarter with Serbia when they scored only 3 points per quarter, this game will be clear over with total about 162-165. Predicted score: Latvia 78 - 85 Bulgaria Pick: OVER 153.5
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