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Mitteldeutscher have a great season behind them, but I doubt there will be surprises against Alba today. The Viennese got down to the ground due to two tied defeats (after a 17 wins series). It was obvious they weren't completely into the game against Hagen last Saturday. They had the approach "this will be easy", and that often pays in a bad way. They say they learned the lesson before today's match. Obradovic isn't the type of coach who'll let things be nonchalant for two rounds in a row, and I expect Alba to play their usual well today, especially in the defense. Home team are decent, but their last match against the Frankfurt who were decimated because of the injuries showed they have no idea how to play an aggressive defense on Hatten's point guard. Hammonds can do exactly that. Alba should also be stronger because of their center Radosevic. He traveled to Weissenfels with the team after he missed the last three matches. Details

Dnjipro-Azot's coach explained the main problem of his team: "We don't have enough players in the rotation and the crucial ones have to play for 30 minutes or more, and it's hard to play half an hour at the same level, especially in defense. It is too much of a burden for not enough players".
This says enough. Azot's game is more or less based on the performance by their shooting guard Sims who's the top scorer in the league but can't do everything on his own. They have the most problems in the paint as their only real center Anikenjko has been injured. Azot have not won a home game and their form is not promising. Nikolaev have won last four out of five games. They are aiming for the play-offs this season and they have to win these games. Their form is improving and their poor performance against Politehnika can be regarded as an exception. In the last round, they beat strong Goverla away, they got their top shooter Peiners back, they reinforced themselves with Bill Clark and they should be dominant in the paint. Nikolaev currently have an 8-10 score while Goverla have 9-9 and hold the eighth spot. The first eight go into the play-offs and one can see how important winning this one is for the visitors. Details

Kotwica only won one match at home this season. They have six consecutive defeats right now, and they come into today's match against Trefl weakened even more. Due to the financial issues, they lost two points around the green table, and last week, two important players left the club. One is their best striker and point guard Jesse Sapp, and the wing player Lukasz Wichniarz. Marko Duric and Adam Parzych left even before these two at their own request. Wojciech Zloty is injured, and the point guard Jordan Callahan has some injury problems lately as well, so Kotwica management made clear they're looking for reinforcements they haven't found yet. Today, they have a match against Trefl, they played against each other by the end of November last time. Kotwica didn't stand a chance then. They were 38 points behind by the halftime, and the opponents' advantage even got over 50 points in some moments. Sapp was Kotwica's best striker in that match, with 20 points. Trefl reinforced their lines with the Lithuanian Buterlevičius, they have to great options for every position, and they are a lot better than the home team. Details

Frankfurt are having more and more injuries each week. According to the latest information, they will be without their six important players today. These are arred DuBois, Konstantin Klein, Kevin Bright, Marius Nolte, Jacob Burtschi and Andrew Rautins. The injuries of their two point guards Klein and Dubois are perhaps the most important ones and we will see either the inexperienced Max Merz on this delicate position or Ramon Galloway, who is a pure shooting guard. Rautins is their top scorer by far and all of these absences have to be felt in their game. In the first game this season, Mitteldeutscher managed to limit Frankfut (who were complete then) to 57 points. In the last round, they limited Hagen to 70, which is a clear indication that they can play solid defense. In last two season MBC have played against Frankfurt three times and they have never scored more than 68 points. Considering the circumstances, the hosts are relying on strong defensive performance as they have very few quality solutions in offense. Details

Budivelnik got 11 wins in the Ukrainian championship so far, the same as today's opponent from Zaporozje. In the first match this season, Ferro defeated Budivelnik at home. Then, the Kiev team were weakened by some important players not playing, and today, it seems that the guests will play with a weakened team. Ferro have financial issues and not paying up the best players started influencing the results. They lost with almost 40 points difference in the last round against Nikolajev. The club's second best striker Powell didn't want to play, so his contract was ended, and the important center Dendy didn't show up for the game either, but he has injury problems. Their best striker Marshall's been out for some time, too, as well as the important back Butskij. It all contributed to the bad match against Nikolajev, and Ferro aren't the most convincing guests as it is, they have 2-7 ratio of away games this season. Budivelnik are complete, in good shape, and definitely motivated. Considering the guests' problems, a convincing win for the home team is an obvious prediction here. According to the latest information, Dendy's contract is suspended, so the guests definitely won't be able to count on the three players who scored 50 points against Budivelnik in the first match. Details

As regular season draws to a close the games are becoming increasingly important, especially for teams on the verge of reaching the play-offs for promotion. Clavijo are one such team that has improved lately and have particularly improved their defensive performance. They limited Barcelona B to 52 points and the offensively-minded Oursense to 67 points. Huesca are one of the best defensive teams in the league. In the last round, they allowed Navarra to get only 49 points. In away games, they score 66 points and allow 70 and their games usually revolve arond 136 points. In the first game this season, Huesca scored 85, but it's hard to expect them to be this efficient. After all, Clavijo's coach said that he doesn't expect more than 70 points per team in this match and that his goal is to continue with good defensive performances like in the last few rounds. Huesca are currently at 50% efficiency, but if they lose today, they would be on level terms with Clavijo which underlines the importance of this game. Details

Given their head to head games this season, I expected the margin to be set at around 146,147 points. The one set over 150 points seems like a good choice. Liege are first and foremost quite a good defense oriented team. The fact they are playing the games at 148 points in the championship on average is due to the fact there are quite a few teams in the Belgian league (Brussels, Willebroek, Leuven), whose defenses are extremely weak. The games against them help the better quality teams to improve their record. Games against Mons (66:70, 69:55), Antwerp (70:64, 71:65), Oostende (54:79), or Pepinstar (69:57, 79:62) can serve to set the record on Liege's game style straight. Liege met Okapi twice so far. They won 68-32 home, and lost 81-60 away. Okapi are well known as the team with quite a good defense, especially away, where they concede an average of 69,2 points. For example, they won their last away game 81-63, against a typical run and gun team Willebroek. Besides, the visiting team point out that this is a very important game for them, their key player Raivio is only returning on the team after being out for months due to an injury, and Liege's top scorer Smith has been struggling with an injury lately. Details

Slask and Anwil are big regional rivals. Their matches are called the "holy war" in Poland, and that speaks about the importance of this match for both these clubs. Today, they're playing the Cup semi-finals, and that's a really important match. Slask are a home team, and they want to use that to get a good result, and Anwil aim high, too, that is, getting the trophy after Stelmet dropped out in the quarter-finals. Mathematically, these teams played two matches. In the first one, Anwil celebrated 73-61 (in Wroclaw), and in Wloclawek, Anwil won 78-60. Neither of those matches had over 138 points. Slask improved their defensive game in the meantime. They played 68-68 against the offensively oriented Rosa in the last round, in the regular time, and in the last five rounds, they only conceded over 69 points once. Anwil are the best defensive team of the league, and they won't give up on their characteristically aggressive game today. They left Slupsk at 62 points a few days ago. Details

A month and a half ago, Wurzburg were convincing in Tubingen. It was obvious how many problems the Tigers have against the aggressive defense, and Wurzburg easily won with 17 points advantage. The news from Wurzburg is that they reinforced their lines with another American besides Waters. It's a 31 year old Marcellus Sommerville who came from the Turkish Aliaga where he had a decent average of 12,6 points and 6 jumps. Tubingen brought Cook, but he'll need some time to adjust. You could see it in the last round when they lost to Ludwigsburg with 35 points difference, and that same Ludwigsbrug defeated Wurzburg at home this season with +11. The absences are definitely the guests' main problem. They won't be able to rely on Wallace and Kasirov (a duo who scored 38 points against Wurzburg in the first match, more than half). Lischka probably won't be ready either, and the experienced Nadjfeji, a very important paint player, is also out because of an illness. Details

The quarter-finals of the German Cup have only 1 game. Whoever wins the game today goes to the Cup Final Four. Oldenburg haven't taken part in the final tournaments since 2002. Brose were eliminated by Bayern in the quarter-finals last year. Both teams are very much motivated and this is a rerun of last year's final series in which strong, feisty basketball dominated the fixture. In last two seasons, these teams have played six games and have gone over this margin only once in regular time. Brose have won all 6 games, including the one played this season which ended in 73-59. The reigning German champions are not the same team as last year but are much more defensively minded. Looking at last 10 games, they allow 72 points on average in all competitions. They also emphasize defense in their away games in the league. They've won the game against Bayreuth by 69-68, and against Ludwigsburg by 80-69, they've lost against Ulm by 59-72....This is a high stakes game tonight as Brose's coach Fleming emphasizes defense and the general impression is that this game in Oldenbrug will not be too attractive. Details

Regardless of the outcome of this game, it might be registered as a 20-0 win for Kyiv, as Goverla have still not reported paying the required funds to the Superleague of Ukraine. The result mentioned was the one with which the recent game between Donjeck and Goverla was registered. In the actual game Goverla lost by 21 points. Before that, they lost with the same spread vs Azovmas. The form of the home team has been dropping for some time now, and Goverla are generally not a convincing home team. They lost vs two of the worst teams in the league, Dnjipr and Dnjipro-Azot, at home. They managed to beat Kyiv in the first bout, but back then the best player among them was point guard Young with 20 points, who has not been playing for a while now due to an injury, and this is obviously a big issue. We should point out that Goverla are playing the Final Four of the Cup on Saturday, and the players' thoughts could easily be on that match already. Kyiv have been close to winning both against Donjeck and Himik in the last two rounds, which shows their form is improving. They've won 7 games so far, one less than Goverla, and my impression is that the margin on this game is too high, with Goverla not being so much of a favorite under current circumstances. Details

Even when Brussels are complete, this bet makes sense, especially today when the home team can't rely on three extremely important players. The main striker Colt Ryan got his ankle heavily injured in the last round, and will probably stay off the court for three weeks. Ryan is the main solution for the back line (16 points per match), and his absence is a big blog for the Brussels team. Home team's problem is that Ryan's absence isn't the only one. Wing player Stephen Ross (9 points and 4 jumps per match) and the wing center Ahmet Gueye won't be able to help for family reasons. Ryan and Gueye were their team's best strikers in the first match against Antwer. The guests have a better roster for sure. They'll be extra motivated by the fact that they have a 9-8 ratio, which is definitely bothering them, so they can't make a wrong move here. Brussels are in a 9 defeats row, they only defeated teams from the bottom of the league table at home. They were 29 points behind in their last defeat against Antwerp, they're not great defensively, and that should definitely suit the guests. Details

Slask and Rosa will play a very important game today in terms of Top 6 battle, as the first six teams go directly into play-offs. Rosa won the first game this season by 83-65. I expect Slask to have lots of offensive problems once again today. The main reason is that they will not have their center Paul Miller, and this is their crucial offensive player who has a major role in their pick and roll game. He can score from outer perimeter as well and open the paint that way. Their forward Gabinski has also been having some problems, while their shooting guard Johnson has suffered from food poisoning. Even the club's top scorer Gibson has missed one day of training. It will not be easy for Slask to dominate the paint without Miller and Rosa have already shown that they can play a solid defense. Taking the importance of this game into consideration and the expected increased aggression, the offense should not dominate this game. Details

Despite the 40-hour trip to Yuzhny, Alba managed to get a win in the Eurocup game against Himik. They were very fortunate in the end-game. Fatigue was visible in the very poor shooting performance which the compensated for with strong defense. The game was supposed to be played on Wednesday but was postponed by 24 hours due to all problems the Berlin team faced so they cam back home yesterday afternoon. They had no time to prepare for Bayreuth while the visitors had almost an entire week to prepare after they almost beat Brose last Sunday. Led by new coach, the experienced Michael Koch, the club have improved their form significantly, especially in defense. Of course, Alba are the favorites and the visitors will have a hard time ending their positive run, but I don't think the hosts will win this one with such conviction as in the first game. Details

Budivelnik have gotten into a great attacking rhythm and have been playing run'n'gun for some time. For instance, they haven't scored under 84 points in last 5 games in all competitions, nor have they played a game with under 164 points. This amount was reached in the game against the defensively minded Union Olimpija. If we look at the home games, the total number of points in last 6 games is +160. Odesa are a very similar team. They play fast, they have a good transition, and you could see that against the Cherkaski Mavpy as the beat them by 98-90 and against Dnpro (94-74). Generally speaking, Odesa accepts faster paced games against offensively minded team and I believe this should be the case today. In their first game this season, they stayed under this margin but Budivelnik had some squad issues at the time. Details

In normal circumstance, Himik are certainly capable of beating Alba at home, regardless of the long winning run of the Berlin team, but considering the problems the Germans have had to Yuzhny, this bet has to be taken. It all started when Alba were stuck in the Harkiv airport after failing to fly for Odessa due to poor weather. They should have had a short bus ride to Yuzhny from there. This didn't happen. The players spent the entire Wednesday waiting in the airport. It became clear in the evening they will not be able to play the game as the weather prevented the flight to Odessa. During the evening, it was decided they will go to Kiev and take the 500 km bus ride to Yuzhny during the night. There is no information that Alba arrived to their destination at the moment. The start of this game will be announced later, depending on Alba's arrival to Yuzhny. The question is whether the Germans would even travel by bus through snow had the Euroleaue board not decided to sanction the club unless they do. Himik could prepare in peace, they got Delaney back and Alba have lost two days without a training, getting to know the Ukrainian winter. Details

Artland defeated Telekom right before the two-weeks break in the away game, and showed how much of a better team they are when they're complete. Injuries and illnesses troubled the Dragons for the most of December and the beginning of January, but now they're healthy and have no European commitments, so they can focus on the national championship fully. In the first match against Frankfurt they lost both main centres, King and Frease, and you could see how many problems they had in the defense. Things will be completely different today. Frankfurt come decimated. They won't be able to rely on the captain Jacob Burtschi, and according to the latest info, they won't take any chances with the main player and striker Rautins who's still dealing with the calf injury. He scored +20 points against Artland in the first match, six three-pointers, and Burtschi added three. The last matches showed how much they were missing this duo. They scored 43 points in the away game against Brose, and 54 at home against Alba. Artland concede 73 points per home game, they can play a good defense, and we can expect lots of problems on the guests' side. Details

There is no doubt that Mitteldeutscher (MBC) are the David in this match against the Goliath (Bayern) but I don't expect the Bavarians to emulate their domination from two months ago. The first reason is that MBC have improved their form since. After that defeat, they got 4 consecutive wins (including Oldenburg away) and they lost by a narrow margin against Telekom and then beat Hagen away in the last round. Today's game is their most important game for MBC. They decided to organize it in the big arena in Leipzig with 7000 seats due to large interest from the fans. Bayern had a difficult game against Galtasaray less than 48 hour ago. This should not pose a physical problem for Pešić but they will probably be mentally worn out. In their last Bundesliga game, they beat Braunschweig at home by 4 points after a difficult game against Partizan. They lost against Oldenburg by 15 points after the game against Žalgiris. After the win against Galatasaray in the first part of the season, they won in Trier by only 7 points. It's visible that Bayern do not give their 100% in the league after Euroleague games. This, and the fact that MBC are highly motivated and that they will give more than they're worth should constitute a solid resistance from them. Details

The margin may seem high and it is, but considering the context, one can expect a big win from the Berlin team, perhaps their biggest this season. Alba are so dominant and Tübingen are that poor. For instance, Alba win at home by an average of 15.3 points, they have the best defense in the league while the visitors have the weakest attack in the league. In their last 10 rounds, they lost their games by an average of 17 pints. Alba are very convincing at home. They have 12 wins in a row. On Wednesday, the beat the strong Himik by 16 points, before that they beat Oldenburg by 24, Hagen by 28, Braunschweig by 19, Mons by 35, Ulm by 28, Bayern by 20. Tübingen lost against that very same Bayern by 37 points and against Ulm by the same point difference. One week ago, they lost against Bayreuth by 15 points in what was the derby of the bottom. They will be without their best players and scorers Wallace and Kashirov, who score joint average of 27 points per game. It is well-known how aggressive Alba's coach Saša Obradović is as he always tries to get the best from his team. It is clear there will be no underestimating the opponents here. Alba are a team that always try to beat their opponents by high margin, they are complete, and realistically speaking, they would be able to beat Tübingen if they were complete and not so weakened as they are today. Details

Clavijo have been on the up ever since they got all their players back. They got 2 reinforcements last week. They beat Burgos away in the first part of the season when they played much worse than in the last 2 months. They beat the strong Coruna at home by 80-58 recently, and they didn't flop against the strongest Andorra, and they almost beat Oviedo away before that. Clavijo are solid at home and have not lost a game there since December, except against the second-placed Palencia by 3 points. Burgos had problems with injuries last week so they were not complete and they still haven't managed to register their power forward Milošević. They have been performing better at home than away this season. Details