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These two teams are as far apart as their stats suggest - exactly one win. The teams are therefore tied, and I expect the game to be pretty tied as well. Joventut's record home is 3-4, not very convincing, even though, it has to be pointed out that they played the best teams in the league (Real, Barca, Unicaja, Laboral). Cajasol have had quite a few good performances away, they managed to beat Gran Canaria and Zaragoza, the two teams who will be in play off. The crucial thing for today's game is the fact Satoranski and Mati (possibly even Sastre) can put an end to key Joventut's assets - point guard Vives and forward Kirksay. They're better than Joventut in the paint, while the teams are quite tied in defense. Joventut are good in defense home, Cajasol are great in defense away. Joventut won their last season's head to had game 82-80 here, Cajasol got their revenge in Sevilla (87-80). All of those arguments speak in favor of another exciting game, in which the visiting team will stand an equal chance. Details

Partizan were very good last week in Munich, and they missed the quality end-game to win, while Bayern did not outplay the Belgrade team in any aspect of the game. I expct another good game from them today, I believe they will put up a solid resistance against the Russians, like they did against Real as they were 6 points away in the 33rd minute. CSKA are no Real Madrid and they can't just shift into a higher gear just like that. CSKA have recently beaten Partizan at Pionir by 11 points, it was a tie last year in Belgrade, and now Parizan have Tepsić which is a plus, considering how important Teodosić is for the Russians. CSKA haven't been too great so far, they are struggling a lot and have some poor performances, so I don't believe they will win this one by 10 points that easily. Details

Efes' offense is currently a tragedy, the coach is focusing on defense only, meaning Panathainkos' Pedulakis will be able to do what ever he wants in the game. PAO were conceding 64, 57, 68, 63, and 63 points in the last five EuroLeague game. Their games mostly end at around 130 points scored and as the season advances, their defense is getting harder and harder to break. Laboral scored only 64 points in Vitoria last week, the last home game with Milan ended with 120 points scored. They beat Efes home last season, and PAO were then more or less the same team. PAO now have Fotsis and Batiste in defense, while Efes lost Vujacic and Farmar, among others. A very defense oriented coach took over lately as well...I think this game will end under 140 points scored. Details

This is hugely important match, especially for the Turks, who have a 0-2 score just like the Russians, but their next week's away game in Munich will be hard to win. I expect a battle in the court, and Russians have extra motive after losing five consecutive Euroleague games. Ataman's team can impose a defensive match, I've seen that plenty of times so far this season, and this Monday they limited Mersin to 23 points in the second half. I am aware Kuban are not Mersin, but on the other hand here the stakes are much higher, and I don't see this going over 150 points. Galata have 4 of 6 unders at home, two that went higher were vs the quick Bayern team and Maccabi who shot 50% three pointers, while Galata were without their key defense player, Hairston. Compared to last week, they're getting Mensah and Aldemir back, so they will be stronger in that segment as well, with more power in the paint. Kuban on the other hand have only three overs in their last 10 games, last week vs Maccabi, in an irrelevant away game vs Laboral Kutxa and at home vs Laboral. Details

After watching two games from both teams, I really don't know what should happen for Macedonia to win this one. All credit to Kiril Lazarov, but as the Austrian keeper said, Macedonia is not Barcelona because of Lazarov much like the Czech team is not Kiel because of Jicha. The Macedonians are weak, they have no goals from the wings, they have no real back player besides Lazarov, they are struggling in offense and Mirkulovski is playing with a sore knee. They practically don't have a left-back and the only thing left to do is go into a fighting mayhem which is what Jonoski and Markoski will probably do as they can't beat the fast Austrians through offense. On the other hand,Austria have the standard first team players from Magdeburg and Gummersbach as wings, they have Bergischer and Balngen as back players and all of them play in Bundesliga on a regular basis. They have left a great impression and they are huge favorites to get the points here, the points which will be very useful in the second phase. Details

I am not a huge fan of the Swedish national team, regardless of their individual quality and club status that Andersson, Du Rietz, and several other players have. Belarus with Rutenko will be a completely different story than what we saw against Croatia and you can forget about that game. I believe they will give an honest game and give Scandinavians a hard time. They've shown against Croatia that they have a deep defense which is something Sweden have never been able to play against and Rutenko will be their player who creates the extra man (usually with two-on-two play, not so much with speed) and if they had a good goalie, I would go for this with an even stronger stake. At WC in Spain last year, Belarus lost by 1 goal against Slovenia, by 2 against Poland, and even if this Sweden is better than those two teams, it's not that much better Details

The fact Schilb is not playing won't make Zvezda especially weaker, on the contrary, it seems every time Schilb played Zvezda suffered on defense. This is why him getting along badly with Radonjić comes as no surprise. I cannot accept such odds for Zvezda as they are in my opinion better than Novgorod, especially since the Russians won't have Brezec. This Zvezda played even Euroleague games in Athens vs PAO, in Krasnodar vs Kuban, beat Laboral in Vitoria and Rytas in Vilnius and only had no chance vs Maccabi. After dropping out of the Euroleague they retained their quality level, they are playing really well and are currently the best team of the ABA league. With the arrival of Dragičević they gained depth in the paint, their big rotation is impressive, and Jenkins and Blažič are contributing immensely from the bench. Novgorod on the other hand lost almost every game vs stronger teams, such as vs Rytas (twice), Kuban, Kazan... In Simonović, Radenović and Dragičević Zvezda have players who can defend vs Babbitt and Thomson, Blažič and Lazić can pressure any guard in Europe. In my opinion they can win this, which is why I'm going for a win and not a low handicap. Details

The Danes were stiff, slow, and inaccurate two days ago in the first half against Macedonia and then they scored 17 goals in the second half and left a better impression. Their opponents for today are certainly different than Macedonia as Austria are lead by an Icelander who demands lots of running and since the Austrians beat the Czechs in the opening game, they can play a relaxed game as this game means very little to them. We have two teams that like to outrun their opponents, like to go for the transition behind the opponents' back and I think we will see an attractive game with lots of goals. Details

Belarus with or without Sergej Rutenko is not the same team as he is 70 % of their offensive power. Without him, Croatia defense will dominate the game Gojun, Vuković, Duvnjak, Musa and Vori should have an easy task against Šilovič, Puhovski and Nikulenko and this will lead to counters and goals. It was 21-9 before the break in Spain last year and everything but a convincing win would be a huge surprise. Details

The main players of both of these teams, Jicha and Szilagy, point to defense before this match. Denmark is in this group as well, so the matches between the Czech, Austrians and Macedonians are really important, and today's match is one of those. A high margin results from a faster Austria, lead by the Icelander Johannesson, and we all know very well how Icelanders think about handball. However, they're facing a physically powerful Czech defense with Kubes, Jicha, Horak, and the amazing Stochl on the goal. The Czech won't run much in the offense, they're aware of Austria waiting for mistakes and a chance of transition. These two teams played pre-season matches in the last two years, and they ended with 52 and 49 goals. This is another story, so the odds are dramatically increased, as well. Details

Conceding 69,2 points per game on average, Brunesa are currently the second best defense in the league, only Barcelona are better. They're playing top-quality defense home, no one managed to score more than 71 point, not even Bilbao or Unicaja...All six home game were under the 154,5 margin, and it seems like the same will happen today. This game is extremely important for the both teams, especially for the renowned Laboral. The defeat would would probably mean they're not going to be participating in the King's Cup, which would be considered a great failure. Italian point guard Poeta joined to help in fixing some defense issues. I'm not saying this to show how good Poeta is, but to show how aware and willing to fix the mistakes Laboral are. Two last games against Barcelona and Panathinaikos were good defense vise, they've conceded 72 points in each. If they manage to stay at the same level today, they'll get the points. Details

Just a quick glimpse on Trabzon's home games shows that their defense improved significantly after the coach Demir came. Out of the last six games, they were convincingly under 150 in four, and the two where they weren't were against the two worst teams of the league, Aliaga and Selcuk, who conceded 96 and 99. They can't score that much against Usak for a number of reasons - first, because Usak are far better than those two teams, and second, even more important, Paul Stoll is missing today because he's suspended, and he's the most important back for Trabzon lately. They brought the American Randle, but he only had a few training sessions with his new team. Besides Stoll, Trabzon are missing four forwards, backcourt is really weakened and considering that, I can't imagine this game ending with 160 points. Their last three games, against Gaziantep, Karsiyaka and Fener ended with 116, 136, and 144 points. All with Stoll in the rotation. Usak, on the other hand, played without Carter against Galata and Fener, conceded over 90, but this is a completely different match. They showed they can stand well in the defense against Karsiyaka last week, and I expect something like that today. The bet is widely available. Details

In my opinion there is no point in making someone this much of a favorite in Sweden, in a friendly game, and I cannot agree with that. Spain won 28-22 on Sunday in Cordoba, after an unearthly 11-0 series. That kind of an event is not likely to happen again today, as the Swedish defense will be reinforced with a specialist, Karlsson, supported by their home crowd, and fully motivated to wash out the bad taste and impression they let in Cordoba. Spain struggles against a set up defense, and Sweden have a top level defense and also what is probably the best goalie duo (Andersson - Sjöstrand) we will be seeing in Denmark. In my opinion this is an even game and 1.40 in favor of Spain makes no sense, making this is a handicap worth taking. Details

Rytas have picked up the pace when their new coach arrived, there's no doubt about that, but the games they've played so far can't be considered as completely relevant. This is something completely different and Besiktas are being underestimated too much. The Turks were great away games in the first part of the Eurocup, they only lost the last game against Panionios (77-67) without Perkins, with Gaines with penalty problems and their mind on the league game as they had no real desire to win that one. Before that, they beat St. Petersburg, Radnički, Bisons and Neptunas. Perkins and Gaines are set to return today, and the former is their most important player in the team and has been preparing for this game for the past 10 days as he didn't play in the league games. He can be expected to have an important role today. There will be no limits in the rotations as Kandemir can freely use his foreign players and considering the recent criticism over Buckman lately, I expect him to get a better performance. In terms of squad, Besiktas don't have the width but they have the quality to match Seibutis, Gečevičius and the rest. I don't believe Rytas will this one so easily. Details

Usak are a defensive team, without good quality foreigners on the back positions, which is rare in the Beko League. They built a collective, a team, and didn't stuff themselves with foreigners who can score 20 each evening. In the last games against Fener and Galata, they didn't stand a chance because their wing Carter, their key player, was injured. He'll be back today, and is expected to give a good resistance, mostly in the defense. This could easily be a match similar to the one against Banvit where they lost 71-64 at home. Karsiyaka had about 140 points in the last four games of the Beko League, even less. We said they had problems with their rotation, now their point guard Dixon is questionable, and since they lost to Trabzon at home, they have to put as much pressure as they can here, so everything points to a tough game. Details

The results Fuenlabrada are getting are far below expectations. At least they fought on their own court, trying to be competitive, resisting Barcelona and Unicaja, and I think they have a chance against Gran Canaria. Panko, Arnold, Fledeine, Paunic, Cabezas... are not bad players, and they can play against what Gran Canaria have. Cannary guests are having troubles lately, they're winning, but not very convincingly. Last week, they played at home against Joventut, and won thanks to a crazy score by Newley, and that got them to the overtime. Without Rey, they have problems with the center, and Fuenlabrada are stronger at the wing center with Panko, so I think they're able to break their defeat series. Details

These two teams opened the Hungary tournament with different results yesterday. The Czech defeated the home team 29-28, and the Polish lost to Belarus with the same result. Polish team have statements about the goalie's bad day, and a weaker defense, and that's exactly what the German coach Biegler is building the result on. When he came, the defense became the most important part, and in the last 29 matches, in different competitions, they went over 55 goals only four times, and that's not a coincidence. I think they'll be more engaged and play better. Szmal should save more balls, and it's not impossible that the Czech coaching duo gives Jich and Horak more rest. No point in spending the main players in matches not that important. I don't think we'll be seeing a game that will be as efficient as the one yesterday, and this is worth taking. Online bookmakers came out a bit late with their offer, but the 55,5 margin can be found in Bwin, Bet365, Marathon, SportingBet. Unibet and Nordic offer 56, so the offer is widely available. Details

Hungary without Nagy is simply not the same team as Hungary with Nagy. That will get very obvious today, and not only today, but in every game to come. They are now a mediocre team, who simply can't be put as favorites like this against the Czech Republic, not even at home. I think the Czech Republic are at this point even stronger - their back court (Horak, Jicha, Sklenak, and Stehlik) are all playing for their respective teams regularly, they're even the key players. Stohl is a better goalkeeper than than the Mikler-Tatai duo, and I think this game will be tied. Kornel Nagy (Putics, Ilyes) - Csaszar (Lekai) - Ancsin (Tamas Mocsai) make up the Hungarian back court, which is not better than the Czech back court in any respect. Details

The only good games Turk Telekom played were the ones where their defense was solid, and that's how they defeated Galatasaray and Karsiyaka. This team don't have a special offensive force after Bradley's injury, and you can see it from one round to the other. They played against Efes in the Cup before the season, and it ended 90-90, but since then, both teams changed their coaches. Actually, Telekom are still waiting for their new one, so today's game will be lead by one of the assistants. Both are without their first strikers, Telekom without Bradley, Efes without Hopson, and possibly also without Vasileiadis. Besides, Efes brought a defensively oriented Greek coach Aggelou, and because of all those reasons, this should be a game with low numbers. Telekom players will be eager after all the defeats and Vrankovic's departure, and Aggelou will want to start with a win. Efes's last three games in the league were about 130 or less points, and that could easily happen today as well. Details

Even though five consecutive defeats is not a pretty sight, coach Zdovc has made a lot since coming to Gaziantep. These defeats came against three title candidates - Fener, Galata, and Efes, while two came against dangerous Karsiyaka and Besiktas. Today they have to win and the defense that worked well in the first game will be the center of attention once again. A few days ago, they limited Karsiyaka to 70 points in Izmir and I don't see how the worst team in the league at the moment can score over 70, especially with the problems Aliaga have been having, as they will be without their first and only playmaker Randle. Without him they were left at 53 against Besiktas. SportingBet offers the mrgin at 70.5 as well as a slightly less renowned bookmakers Comeon, but they have very high limits and Comeon seems like a good option for a single bet. Details