Fenerbahce Ulker – Panathinaikos
Fenerbahce Ulker had a horrible start to the Top 16 with 3 loses out of 3 games. Obradovic is absolutely very disappointed with his team’s recent performance. He constantly points the defending mistakes of his players. Moreover especially the key players of the team Emir Predlzic, Bojan Bogdanovic and Nemanje Bjelica are not performing well and they were very ineffective during the last 3 games. Melih Mahmutoglu’s great performance (3 points 5/5, total of 19 points) against Unicaja Malaga could not prevent the defeat. On the other side Panathinaikos had a great start to the Top 16 and they are at the top of Group E with 3 Wins. Last week they had a deserved victory over Anadolu Efes. Dimitris Diamantidis (17 points,9 assists) and Stephane Lasme’s (16 points,9 rebounds) brilliant performance helped the Athens’ Representative to get an easy win. Roko Ukic the Croatian point guard, is leading his team very consciously and this gives self confidence also to the rest of the team. However the atmosphere of such games can be very different. Fenerbahce is playing really effective basketball in front of their supporters at Ulker Sports Arena. In our opinion Fenerbahce is close to win, considering the fact that this will be one of their last chances to rise up to next round and they will do anything for the victory.
Prediction: Fenerbahce Ulker to WIN! ( AH-3,5 points)
Top Odds: Pinnacle @ 1,92 – bet365 @ 1,90 – William Hill @ 1,90
Caja Laboral – Olympiakos
Both Teams had 1 win and 2 loses at the Top 16. After having 11 consecutive wins at the Euroleague, Olympiakos’ form and performance decreased unexpectedly at the previous weeks. After getting beaten to Olimpia Milano with 30 points difference, they lost to Barcelona in Athens last week. Those results are really disappointing for the supporters. The players of the team need to pick themselves up rapidly, if they are willing to hold the Euroleague Title for the 3rd time in a row this year. For the home side even reaching the Top 16 was a great success. Nocioni, Hamilton and Heurtel can be very useful and creative for their team time to time. The team had 2 loses after gaining a great victory over Unicaja Malaga at the away game. But unfortunately the stability and quality of the team is limited and they are not able to show the same performance at every game. At this game we are expecting Vasillis Spanoulis and his team mates to wake up from a nightmare and turn back to Athens with a victory.
Prediction: Olympiakos to WIN!
Top Odds: Paddy Power @ 2,00 – bet365 @ 1,95 – Pinnacle – @ 1,93
