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A duel between two physically powerful teams

Unicaja secured going through, but they are still after CSKA who are the first. Darussafaka would have gotten to the Top 16 with a win if Maccabi had lost last night, but they could get really close either way

There are a few teams in Europe who rely on physical strength, but there are probably none better than Darussafaka and Unicaja. Darussafaka are the third best in the Euroleague in rebounds, 37.6, with only Olympiakos and Real Madrid ahead. Unicaja are great when it comes to controlling the rebounds, allowing their opponents only 29.3 per match. Darussafaka allow 33.1.

No doubt, the most of the fight in this duel will be lead in the paint where Darussafaka have a lot of weapons - Erden, Aldemir, Bjelica, Harangody, Slaughter... The Euroleague website announced the duel of the short wings Preldžić and Kuzminskas as the crucial one for this match. That announcement is quite right, even though the guests' coach sometimes uses Kuzminskas as the wing center. 

- This is a very important game for us. We want to win this duel and increase our chances for getting to Top 16 - Preldžić announced.

He gave that statement early on, when Darussafaka's win combined with Maccabi's defeat would lead Darussafaka to the second round. Maccabi won last night, so even if the Turks win, it doesn't mean they're getting placed to the Top 16 automatically, so Preldžić was right, even though he didn't know it at the time. A win would only get them closer to their goal.

- Unicaja are one of the best Euroleague teams, and we have to do our best to beat them, we have to force our game - Preldžić added.

They couldn't do it in Spain. They did win the rebounds 35-27 with 12 offensive ones, but the key was that they couldn't respond to Unicaja's defensive intensity. They had 16 turnovers, 10 more than Unicaja.

- A win would boost our confidence back - Darussafaka's wing center pointed out, and the coach Mahmuti said: 

- We have to leave the last games behind us and look forward. Even though we have ups and downs, we're a good team. A win would get us one step closer to our goal.

Forgetting their last duels is recommendable indeed. They lost the last three thanks to bad offensive performances, while the defense were so-so. Unicaja definitely won't let mistakes like those slip. Darussafaka's lineup is still a mystery. Erden and Redding didn't play this weekend when they lost to Banvit. Savaš was back after being out for a while. We still don't know if Erden and Redding will be in the roster, and Dudley is definitely out. Redding was probably out because of the foreigners' limitation, but it could be that he was injured.

Unicaja couldn't have wanted a better month. After three back-to-back away defeats, they got one week to calmly practice in Malaga. They also easily beat Maccabi and Estudiantes. This boosted their confidence back, but also brought back their game, which was pretty confusing in the last 10 days.

Now is their chance to show that their form is back, and that they can play away those games that they were losing in four of the last five matches, which is definitely not easy: 

- Every away win is important, especially when you play strong teams like CSKA, Maccabi or Darussafaka. We want to show we're ready and that our last away defeat against Bamberg was a coincidence - the coach Plaza said while announcing the game.

Unicaja secured going through a long time ago, and this match bears no importance for them, while the same definitely cannot be said for the home team. Plaza is a coach that never never uses tricks, though, and he'll definitely go full force today, even though he's saying that Darussafaka are a much better opponent now than they were in their first duel: 

- They're a powerful team, but they were powerful when we played them in Malaga. They added two new players to the roster now, which means they're even better now.

It's interesting that Darussafaka were one of the few teams that managed to dominate Unicaja in rebounds in that first duel. A series of extraordinary centers that Oktay Mahmuti can rely on proved to be too strong even for Unicaja. Mahmuti will build his game using the fact that they can dominate physically, because he knows that if you take the transition and the offensive rebounds from Unicaja, they become a much weaker team.

They replaced Gabriel with Cooley as the back-up center. He could be a real nice surprise, but he won't play today. 

The first game finished at 150 points after the second quarter finished with 45 (a third of total points). This game is extremely important for the home team and I think Mahmuti will not order his team to play a fast-paced game. First of all, that just not his style and second of all, Darussafaka are not a team that can keep up with the fast-pace. The pain is where I think this game will be settled because teams are very phsically powerful and this is a clash of muscle and strength, not techmicall skills. Also, Darussafaka are a different team away. Brose hit a lot of points against them in Germany (86), while the game in Turkey barely went over 120. Darussafaka have under with Sassari home (66-66 in regulation time) and hen a game at 121 points. The only over they had home is against CSKA but I don't think that needs any explanations. Unicaja have 2 over and an under away but the overs are against CSKA and Maccabi and the under against Brose. Except for the head to head at 150 I mentioned, the teams as a rule go over only with very fast-paced teams. I think this game is similar to that one Oly and MIlan played yesterday. It's a game between two very good defenses, which I think will end closer to 140 than at +150.