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Real are the best European team when they are dominant in rebounding, which allows them to develop their game. But that won't happen today, as it didn't happen against Efes in the quarterfinals. had the Turkish side been a bit more focused and lucky, Efes would be here today. The key move Ivakovic made was rebounding. If they could beat Real in that respect with Krstic, Saric and Lasme, Obradovic will be more than able to do it with excellent Vesely and Bjelica. Fener have good enough quality to dominate in the pain and that should see them stand a chance for reaching the final. The back court might not be as good as Real's but Goodelock, Bogdanovic and Zisis, alongside Prledzic, deserve respect and who even thinks Real will sail past Fener had another thing coming in my opinion. Details

Valladolid and Breogan played against each other four times this season and Valladolid haven't left a better impression in any of those games. The fact is that Valladolid are a team more oriented on home games, Breogan as well, but today's visitors were close to winning in Valladolid mid-April, they practically lost in the last second. In the two home wins, the team from Galicia won by 18 and 15 points, they lost on Sunday, even though they were in the lead by 15 with only 4 minutes of the game left. It probably would have ended differently if they could have counted on their main scorer Llorca, an extremely important player for their concept, and he will be playing tonight. Also, another guard, Chapela, is also returning, so the away team's outside line is almost complete. Breogan have an advantage in the paint with Samb and mcGhee, their jumpers are more dominant than Valladolid's, they have more real options in the offense and I believe that they can, at the very least, take this game into a completely evened finish. Details

Everything is clear from the preview. Both teams need to win. This is a 'to be or not to be' game for Slask and defeat is out of the question because in that case they would no longer depend n themselves, but on Nielba as well, which is not good at all. Situation is also tense for Lubin, since they are ahead by only two points, but if they lose today, they can only get a position that takes them into extra qualifications because of their bad average against Gdansk. I'll leave the math for the last round when they could all get evened out, but they will both want to win today. With that in mind, I don't believe there will be a lot of shots in this game. The pressure is huge. The offenses should be more careful, actions more developed, without rushing, but I am somehow sure there could be more mistakes. Lubin have shown in this playoff just how much the pressure affects their game, and they even admitted that in their statements. Slask are a hard nut to break at home. They played a close and fighting game against Gdansk, and they should play even tighter today if they want to win. The defenses and the goalkeepers will have to give their 120% because every goal is important. Gdansk limited Lubin to 21 and 25 goals, Slask can also leave them under 30, and I also don't believe that they will deviate from their average per game (26). Details

Two details were crucial for Pfadi's wins over Otmar this season: aggressive 3-2-1 defense and more rotation options. Because of the numerous injuries both of these elements have been 'destroyed'. The defense doesn't work without the specialists Bajram and Svajlen, their rotations are now equally as bad as Otmar's. And even those who will play tonight are not completely healthy: first right back Krieg is having problems with his ankle joint, first right wing Tynowski is having knee problems - the right side of Pfadi's offense could be in big problems today. Another thing that is not in their favour is the fact that Otmar are aware of their chance and are not going into this game to simply play their 60 minutes like before. Moreover, they want to take a 'break' and advance to the playoff final in the next game. They have shown at home court that this is extremely possible in the current situation; with a bit more concentration, they could have returned the favor to Pfadi for the loss by 12 points they suffered in the first game of the series. Accordingly, the home team cannot be that big of a favorite tonight; this should at least be an even game. Details

If you watched Game 2, you could clearly see how Oldenburg's game declines with time. They were without three important players in that match, and Jenkis soon got injured as well, which left them with 6 pros and three other players who are normally in Germany's third best division. They did badly in the last quarter and Alba managed to get the match point. According to the last available information, it is expected that Oldenburg played decimated by injuries again. Alba are complete and will want to get this finished today. Oldenburg's defense is particularly bad due to injury-struggles and busy schedule. They conceded 95 in the first game and 88 in the second. It's tough to expect them keeping up with Alba's high intensity. Details

On the final tournament of the German handball Cup for women in Hamburg, the second game is played between the current champions Thuringer and Oldenburg who won the German Cup three times in the past, last time in 2012. Thuringer are going after a double crown, they defeated their direct rival for the top spot, Buxtehuder, 32-26 in the great derby last weekend. Their team is complete, their best player Nadgornaja, who missed several games at the end of the last month because of an injury, is also in the team, and her 14 goals in the last two games say that she is completely ready for the hunt after the two trophies by the end of the month. Majority of experts predict a Thuringer vs. Buxtehunde finale, but Oldenburg's coach, Leszek Krowicki, is opposing those predictions, "Of course we have a chance. We proved that many times throughout this season". Oldenburg are going into this game highly motivated and confident after a great championship win over last year's Cup winner, Leipzig (28-18). They are also building their optimism on a great win over the same rival on the rival's court in the Cup quarter-final (29-28), and that win opened the door to this final tournament. Oldenburg's concept is the first thing influencing today's pick. Oldenburg are the second most efficient team in the German championship, right behind Thuringer, their score 30 goals per game on average, but they are also the team that conceded the most goals against top 6 teams (27 goals per game). They are forcing fast attacks, using counterattacks, and they have the most efficient back line. Three of Oldenburg's players are among the Top 10 scorers of the League, that's their complete back line, left back Geschke, middle back Muller and right back Julia Wenzl. The latter one is in the best form of her career, in the last seven games she scored average of 10 goals. It is important to mention that Oldenburg's most important player and a member of the German national team, Angie Geschke was out for five weeks, but she came back ten days ago and was in the starting lineup against Leipzig for the first time after the break. She played for the majority of the game, and the information that she scored 8 goals in that game confirms she has returned to her form.

Something about their head-to-head games. These two teams played against each other 10 days ago in the championship, Thuringer won 35-32. Above mentioned Geschke played only defense in this game and scored only one goal, but we can expect her usual efficiency today, the same one she had in their first game this season in Oldenburg at the end of November (27-32), when she scored 7 goals. Thuringer have won last eight games, but what needs to be stressed are are seven overs on the margin offered for today's game. The eighth over seems to be announced for tonight. Details

A low margin, but in my opinion, it has value. There probably isn't another team in Europe that has the width in the power forward position like CSKA. Itoudis can rotate Vorontsevich, Kirilenko, Khryapa, Nichols and Hines in that position. If we look at Hines' average per game, he is on 6.4 in the VTB League, 6.9 in the Euroleague, but these numbers would be smaller if CSKA had this much width from the start of the season. Khryapa missed a number of games because of an injury, Kirilenko joined the team in the second part, he also missed some of the last games, but they are both ready now and I think they will have a very important role in this game. With Vorontsevich and Kaun, I don't see a lot of room for Hines. Hines played 15 minutes on average throughout the season, and I expect to see him in an even more subordinate role today. Olympiacos know him well, they will try to impose their slow pace, which also goes in favor of this bet. Hines scored 12 points in their first head-to-head game, but CSKA played without Kirilenko and Khryapa then, and Kaun played for only 10 minutes. The second match is more relevant for me, in it Kirilenko, Vorontsevich and Kaun played for 20-25 minutes, Khryapa was just coming back from an injury (three minutes), and Hines played nine minutes in these circumstances and hadn't scored from the floor. I expect a similar situation today as well, Hines should have a smaller role and contribute more in the rebounds than in the efficiency. Even when he does play, CSKA have a lot of great shooters in the outside positions (Teodosic, de Colo, Weems...) and I doubt that this will be a game in which a lot of actions will be created for him. Details

In the clash between two teams from Zagreb, only the home side needs a win. Even when there was no imperative, Hrvatski Dragovoljac regularly defeated Rudes at home. HD have changed the coach, they had two weeks to prepare for this duel, their defense is playing well together and they haven't conceded in the last four rounds. Rudes always play better at home, they are arriving without their best striker and, the most important thing right now, they have no motivation. Details