betprepare.com

There are defense oriented teams in Turkish championship and they can be counted on one hand. Rookies Demir Buyukcekmece are not one of them. Coach Civgin was more focused on offense in the second league as well. Demir had the fourth most efficient offense (78,8 points), and even though they weren't always an over team in the pre-season, in the league so far they went over in two out of four games. They were under against then still sleepy Trabzon and against Efes because the visitors came fired up after two straight losses and they left them at 61 points. Even with such efficiency the game finished at 152. Fener don't need any special introduction. They are an offensively powerful team. In 10 official games they have only four overs on this margin, but there is a good reason for every under they had. Bayern have serious definse in the Euroleague, Dacka are under team, they underestimated Selchuk, they played well against Real, Galatasaray played great defense, and they scored a lot against Zvezda after the defeat against Galata. Most of the reasons which led Fener into unders do not exist today. Fener are coming at Demit after three straight wins, there is no reason for any revenge, so to say. The opponents are not good defensively, in three games they conceded 86 or more, and I think they will get their chance to score because, in the last season, Fener won games like this one primarily by offense. This is, in my opinion, leaning towards that initial Fener's game when they defeated TED 97-81. Details

These two teams faced each other twice in pre-season. The first game, at the start of pre-season for both teams, finished 65-57 for Trabzon, and the second one was in the second half of the pre-season and Turk Telekom won that one 78-74. These results are not in my favor, but I am still convinced that today's game will go over the set margin of points. First of all, these are two offensively oriented teams. Turk Telekom scored less than 80 points only at the start of the pre-season in the mentioned game against Trabzon. They had a lot of injury problems at the start of the season, but they have been looking good in the last three games since Jenkins returned (it is possible that Brown will play today as well). Trabzon are also powerful offensively, even though they haven't showed that in every game, but they put the team together as the season went because of the European Championship. They also had problems with injuries (Velickovic), and their recent games against Banvit and Besiktas prove they can score against teams with weaker defense. OK; Kinsey will be absent today, and he is a player that scores over 10 points in every game, but Hardy, Johnson-Odom and Velickovic can compensate for that. Stipanovic is also a player who scores over 10 points, and Markovic could finally get something from Kulig... In a league with fort defenses like Turkish, for a clash between two teams of this profile, this margin is too low. Details

The last league match Asvel played showed they're not to be underestimated. They hosted Le Havre, and crushed them by 30. They played five home matches this season, beat Antibes by 14, Mons by 21, and Le Havre by 30. Other than that, they've got +2 against the tough Dijon and they lost to Cholet by 1, gambling the lead of +7 in the last two and a half minutes. They're in a great form, they won eight of nine official matches, seven in a row, and there's no fatigue because JD Jackson got width, so nobody played over 23 minutes against Le Havre, and still crushed them. Kormend lost an away match against Groningen by seven, by 33 against Mons, and by 27 against Atomeromu in the league. They depend too much on Channels and Perry, but that's what they're pointing out in Asvel and they obviously knocked out the Hungarians well. For comparison sake, Asvel beat Mons by 21 at home, and that same Mons beat the Hungarians by 33 at home. With the right approach, and I don't doubt they'll have it, this shouldn't stay under 20. Details

I respect what Boulogne have done so far in the league, but when you scratch beneath the surface, they really haven't done much. They defeated Souffel who is predicted by many to be a part of the relegation battle, they also lost to them in three quarters and then won the last one 23-14 and in the end won the game by 7 points. They won at Saint-Quentin, but yesterday's Saint-Quentin's game in which they were in the lead at Bourg, top favorites, and parried them until the end, shows how much Saint-Quentin underestimated Boulogne's young team in that game. Emphasis on young. Their coach said ahead of their last game that they will be ready in 4-5 months. OK, he might have exaggerated a bit, but they didn't turn into a machine over night. They lost all six pre-season games, all four in Leaders Cup, and their record in the cup is 1-1. They lost at home against Evreux, Saint-Quentin in the pre-season, Evreux and Le Portel in the Leaders Cup. Boulzac are, with Bourg, the biggest title favorites. They had some problems with injuries during the pre-season and they still won. They only lost in the last Leaders Cup round at home against Poitiers when it didn't matter to them because they secured advancement into the next round. They did lose in the pre-season against third league team Blois and against Roanne, but they played those games with 6-7 players. When things got serious (Leaders Cup), they won even decimated. Against Poitiers by 8, Nantes by 3. In the league they won at Vichy by 8, and I cannot say that Boulogne are better than Vichy. Details

Derby matches are left alone as a rule but this is a bet that relies on the current situation. Zagreb are at least 30 percent weaker without Vladovic. They struggled without him in Osijek and barely won. Alkar humiliated them home last round. Coach Jusup says they cannot do well without an othodox point guard and Bozić and Batur cannot do that as well as they should. Zagreb play a specific kind of game in which Vladocic plays an important role. Another thing, good defense results in great transition, which is also where Vladovic has the upper hand over Bozic and Batur. Kvarner are the top team in A-1 league alongside Zagreb. They have everything they need to stand up to Zagreb today. They are 4-0, always do well home and won't be short on motivation since this is the fight for the top spot. The top spot doesn't mean anything but everyone likes to be top table. There are too many things going for Kvarner today and I cannot just ignore this bet. Details

Evreux are far off from the team they were last season, with Remy Valin. With Pluvy, it's not really run'n'gun, but they're not far from it. Evreux's results from the preseason are - 181 against Chartres, 205 against Boulogne, 211 against Rouen, 172 Caen and 167 Boulogne. In the Leaders Cup - 159 against Boulogne, 179 Le Portel, 177 Boulogne, 154 Le Portel. In the Cup - 177 against Vitre and 135 against Saint-Quentin. They played under in the league against the same team, so that's probably why this margin against Poitiers. They showed they're offense-oriented against Souffel, that ended at 160. Yes, they're faster than last year, but that doesn't make them a team for 160 points. Evreux is. Poitiers' matches are so one way that they went over in five of 11 matches (9 in the preseason, 2 in the league). So, they're not typical teams for under. Exactly the opposite. With Greer, Harley, Dorsey, Thinon, Guillard... they've got players who can score and take the match to higher numbers. They played at 163 against an under-prone team Bourg, and conceded 87. They conceded 84, 91 (103 with overtime), 78 and 87 in the last four official matches. The coach says he'll make some changes, but I don't think Poitiers can turn into Lille overnight. Not with the players they have. Details

This margin has base in the statistics, Kuban score 80 points in the Euroleague, Pinar have 70, but I still think this will be an under. The group is tricky, and 3-0 Kuban started with means little because there's seven rounds left. They could definitely do without losing at home, and they'll definitely do their best. Defense first of all because they look really, really good this season. They still didn't concede over 76 in an official match this season, played at home only twice, left Panathinaikos at 70, Astan at 66. Of eight official matches, they conceded 70 or under in five. Pinar look like they're prone to over because of the national league results, but they had lots of points against the fast Beš, defensively horrible Turk Telekom and Istanbul. It's different in the Euroleague. They've got 2/3 unders on this margin. Both at home, though, but they said this is like a final for them, and the defense will be important. A small minus is that they conceded 85 against PAO, that's one away over on this margin, but they played a friendly against these two teams in the preseason, that ended at 140 with a blowout. I think this will end about 140 sooner than 160 points. Details

This margin made sense while Westermann was one of the main parts of Limoges' offense and while Culpepper was out due to an injury. In 35 minutes Westermann scored 20 points to Le Havre with 6-for-15 from the floor (without Culpepper). He scored 15 to Nanterre in 28 minutes with 5-for-10 from the floor (without Culpepper and Payne). He scored 12 against Le Mans in 33 minutes with 4-for-11 from the floor (without Culpepper and Payne). The first match with Culepper was in Euroleague, against Efes. Westermann was at eight points with 3-for-5 from the floor. In the league, after Culpepper's return, Limoges played four more matches, and Westermann scored seven points against Dijon (24 minutes, 3-for-6 from the floor), four against Chalon (22 minutes, 2-for-7) and seven against Cholet (27 minutes, 2-for-7). In Euroleague he played two matches after Culepper's return. He scored 15 points against Cedevita with 4-for-8 for three-pointers (a total of 4-for-9 from the floor, 3-for-4 in free throws) in 31 minutes, and against Laboral it was 10 in 20 minutes (4-for-8 from the floor). His average in the league is 10.6 points, h has 3/3 unders on this margin since Culpepper returned, and in Euroleague he's on an average of 11 points and he has 2/3 unders on this margin with Culpepper in the line-up. And that's next to 58% of shots for three pointers (7-for-12). What gives this bet value are the opponents. Olympiakos can bring the French down to under 70 points without problems, and Westermann will hardly outplay Oly's strong defende. All in all, the real margin is around 8.5, and 9.5 at max, considering the circumstances and the opponents. Details

What Khimki have in their lines looks brutal in the offense way of saying. And that's nicely seen in their results. The one match in which they stayed below 81 points was the away match against Bayern who has been showing two sides this season - a serious one for Euroleague, and a more relaxed one for the home championship. Khimki scored 87 points against Saratov this season, 117 against the absurd Vita Tbilisa, 84 against Real, 97 against Krasny Oktjabr and 91 against Zvezda. We're talking about the same Zvezda who scored 81 points against Strasbourg and won with +22, and who is far from an offense machine. In French frames, Strasbourg are invincible for most of the teams so it's hard to conclude anything here, but even as such they conceded 87 points against Asvel at home, and 79 against Pau Orthez in an away match. They only left Monaco at home at 60 in the last round. Le Havre, Antibes and Reims shouldn't even be mentioned because they're light years away from Khimki. They left Fener in Euroleague at 70, but that was at home, they were ecstatic, and the Turks looked like they were playing basketball for the first time in their life. Away in Euroleague - 81 Zvezda and 76 Bayern for whom we said they're more defensive in Europe. Khimki's machine could go over this one. The total over of 150.5 is also an option, as well as Strasbourg's team over which has been set to the low 65-66 points, but this is the best option for me. Khimki are not a car, they're a space shuttle for Strasbourg. Details

I was a bit reluctant to go with the total under because of Pien's inconsistency defense but the team under at the home team seems like a great idea. Let's start with Ventspils. Thy have yet to concede 70 points this season. Liepajas did best against them to finish with 69. Even when we take a look at the friendly matches, we see that Ventspils limited some powerful teams like Oktjabr (78), Neptunas 61, Zaliris (58, they were without the internationals who were at Eurobasket) under this margin. hey limited Zenit to 77, Litkabelis to 77...that same Litkabelis limited Pieno 64 and hit 86 in a championship game. We can draw some comparisons with Neptunas, who were limtied to 61 point by Ventspils. That club didn't have that many players at EC. Even Pien's results go in favor of this tip. They went over against Juventus (83) and against Turow now (80). That measn 6 out of 8 were unders. I think this margin is off and if Ventspils do as they normally do, this should be successful. Details

Considering how these two teams are playing, this margin is a miss. Besiktas went far under in four of six matches this season, they stayed under against Turk Telekom, then they started playing a bit better against Yesil in a fast match (131 shots total), but where the offenses were bad. They made it to 153 then, but 60 was scored in the last period. They had 175 against Pinar, 178 against Lietuvos, 182 against Saratov and 180 against PAOK, who have anything but a good offense, who also have a new coach, Ulug, so their game style hasn't changed much. That's enough for me. As for Istanbul, 181 points against Demir and 185 against Karsiyaka. An offensively oriented team whose games ended with a bigger number of points in the preseason too, with six overs on this margin in 10 matches , and they stayed under against Cedevita (155), Union Olimpija (138 with Union scoring 58), Gaziantep (154) and TED (154). Details

I had three options here, and went for the one best available, handicap on Bourg. These two teams differ a lot in their ambitions. Poitiers just want to stay in the league, Bourg want to win the title, and won't settle for less. Their team is really good in the second league, some would even compare them to Monaco who took the title last season. Even Charleville crushed Poitiers in rebounds, and dominated the paint. Bourg's wing-center line is the best ProB can offer. Bourg have an advantage in the frontcourt, too, with Pellin and Ona-Embo, and after Poitiers struggled against Charleville's defense, only getting 7 assists, I think they'll have it even tougher today because Bourg are an elite defensive of ProB. For comparison sake, Bourg matched a team like Asvel at home, lost only by 10 to Chalon, while Poitiers lost to the weakened Boulazac (no Dubiez and Corre) at home, by 8 (68-76). With Greer and Charles-Catherine in the team, they scored 22 total, but Greer isn't likely to play today, and Charles-Catherine is back after an ankle injury. Besides the handicap, a good option for a unit less is the team under for Poitiers, while the total points under is also worth these 5/10. Details

One of the top European teams against Zganec and Arapovic!? I think Cedevita are in for a tough night. Brown stayed under this margin in two EL games (9 points against Milano in 24 minutes and 8 against Limoges in 21 minutes). But he has not yet had this good a matchup. Interestingly, Brown is spending more time on the floor in the domestic championship (28 minutes against Galata – 15 points, 32 minutes against Banvita – 13 points), while the coach gives him some 20-25 mins in Euroleague. Given the opponents, he should go over this margin, especially because Ivkovic sometimes put Saric on the floor at the same time at 3. Cedevita conceded 20 in 26 minutes to Printezis at this position and 14 in 28 minutes to Daniels, while Zubcic was still on the team. He was more experienced than Zganec and Arapovic. Brown's less minutes on the floor in EL and the possibility for the game to fall apart (Ivkovic doesn't have other players than Saric and Brown to put at 4 in case of a blowout) are calculated in the stake. Details

Gaziantep are a defensively oriented team, but Jure Zdovc has put it together so that, after a great reaction in the defense, he wants fast transition, that is easy points on the other side. We could say, opportunist basketball, but in the pre-season Gaziantep showed that it works against defensively weaker teams. They scored 86 against Besiktas, 84 to Istanbul, 78 to Yesil, 83 to Trabzon, 93 to Tofas. They even scored 76 against Darussafaka during the pre-season. OK, they were quite sterile in the league, but I cannot and don't want to compare Dacka and Galatasary with Inter from Bratislava who conceded 72 against Iskra Svit in the league, 91 in regular time against Koman, 103 against Prievidza, 85 against Levicki Patrioti and 93 against Kosice... So, in five out of 8 league games they conceded over, against teams that are nowhere near as good as Gaziantep. I think that Inter's fast style is ideal for Gaziantep's aggressive defense and search for transition. This should go over. Details

I really don't know what Paris did to deserve the role of the favorites in this match. They recorded 4 defeats in 4 games they played so far in the league to keep the poor preseason performances going (2-4 in friendly matches). One of those defeats was to Pau Orthez, in a game that was played on neutral grounds .Pau won it vy 9 points after losing focus in the final quarter . Pau's team underwent no changes since and they are on a 2-2 record so far. They lost to the powerful Monaco away and to Strasbourgh home after three close quarters. Bertecheky immediately said hat a good performance against Strasbourg doesn't mean the will win easily against bottom table teams. I expect them to be motivated today, which should be enough for Paris, who lost Florence since that friendly match, which how finished with 12 points. Two new players joined but will not make any greater contribution to the team. Paris lost to Asvel by 19 and Rouen by 12 points at home. Pau are close to ASVEL in quality and they are better than Rouen. There is no sense in the home team being such favorites in my opinion. Details

The odds were similar to these before the first quarterfinal playoff match last season. Hyeres got to the playoff as the second team of the regular part, and had a fantastic season behind them, and still lost both home matches in the quarterfinal, against Le Portel. A few months later, Hyeres don't have a coach who was the main one responsible for the great success, no important point guard Julien, no Gardner and Westbrook, the best player of the league, Spain, is injured. Le Portel, on the other hand, are coming here as one of the three main favorites to get promoted. Let's say Bourg are the strongest, but Boulazac and Le Portel are right behind. These odds, and even they're a stretch, would've been okay for the last season. Definitely not for this one. There's also value in the clean guests' win because I think they are a bit of a favorite here (Hyeres are a tough home team, after all), but they're definitely not an underdog. Hyeres beat Bourg in an away match in the Leaders Cup in the preseason, but that was Bourg's worst match (26 turnovers). Bourg won the return fixture for that one by 14. Le Portel beat the first-league team Gravelines in the preseason, and lost to the Belgian first-league team Liege by 10. They were evened out to Le Havre at home, and lost by two in the Cup. The only defeat not fitting for this bet is the one against Evreux, but they accepted the home team's fast rhythm and conceded 93 points. Hyeres can't score that much to Le Portel even if they play overtime. Details

This tip is partly the result of the situation and partly of the fact it's Granger we're talking about. He spent the entire 40 minutes on the floor against Galatasaray, which proves how much trust Ivkovic has in him. There's also one other thing - Huertel missed the match due to a bad infection and is still on antibiotics. Balbay didn't play because of an injury. There is no official confirmation that the two of them won't play today but even they do, I find it hard to expect them to get a lot of minutes on the floor. Huertel was at Ivkovic's disposal against Limoges but Granger still played for 27 minutes. He finished with 8 points but with 2/10 from the floor. He took 20 shots against Galatasaray to go 9/20 and hit 22 points. In Supercup when Huartel was on the team, Granger spent 37 minutes on the floor to hit 17 points (7/15 from the floor). The matchup is not bad since Lafayette and Cinciarini are Milano's point guards. They are more defense-oriented (Lafayette especially) but James of Laboral hit 13 points (6/19 from the floor) against Milan in Euroleague first round. Adam added 7 (3/8 from the floor). That means Granger will have enough room and should go over this with decent shooting. Details

I am going to be rude and say that as long as the bookmakers plan to keep Banvit under 160 points, I will bet on it each time. Of course, I don't plan to blindly stick to it, because as it takes two to tango, it also takes two to go over the point margin in basketball. Banvit got to 153 points in an away game against hard, slow and 'boring' Buducnost, and if the second quarter had been normal (16-11 for Buducnost), it would easily have gone over 160. So, with Buducnost that goes into over only when they have to, so to say. Trabzon are a whole other story. This Trabzon play offensive basketball and don't be fooled by their two starting results. Galatasaray left them at 58, but this season's Galatasaray is defensively good with Lasme, Dorsey and some other acquisitions. They played at 144 points against Aris, but Aris are a typical Greek team, classic under team. Here we have a game between two teams that will be playing for an extra point. Players like Fortson, Simmons, Johnson and Moerman on one side, and Hardy, Johnson-Odom, Kinsey, Kulig and Stipanovic on the other side, are a guarantee for points. Details

I don't want to offend out friends from Zabok, but their roster is nothing special. If I would go into dramatical differences, then I would say that their best player is the man who Zagreb didn't even try to keep over the summer (center Vukovic). The Ants won in an away match against Lasko with +10 points of difference, at home they beat Skrljevo with +26, and then in an away match against one of the main competitors for the first place, Jolly, they won with +7. I don't really know much about Slovenia's basketball, but I dare say that Lasko are a better team than Zabok. I know for sure that Jolly are better, Skrljevo are almost the same as them. I would even say they are a bit better. That's why this handicap is too low. Zabok admitted themselves that the have problems and holes in the game, and they have a lot of oscillations. Zagreb are full of experienced and good players, and even the young ones, such as Bozic and Peric, can determine the match. Looking at the positions, the away team don't have a single advantage. Valdovic can take on Nakic and Azulovic at any day, Bozic is class above veteran Lez and the young Miksic, Marcinkovic and Batur are definitely stronger than Crnjevic and Palc at the wings, and the tall players Halilovic, Sarlija and Vlaic are better than Krstanovic, Gospic and Vukovic. To me this looks more like 20 points of difference than a tense match with only seven or eight points more for Zagreb. Details

I think this will be a breakthrough of the year for the Czech player. Even though Obradović assembled an interesting team with tall positions with no typical center players. Udoh, Antić, Vesely, they can all play it, but the Czech national team player will get the most time there. Antić missed the last matches, so he's questionable today. Udoh is mostly used next to Vesely on the court, as the four (Datome is mostly pushed to the three), so our hero could play about 25-30 minutes today. Even the minutes aren't the key for this story. Vesely played against Bayern in Zadar, his first match after coming back from the EC, and scored 16 points in 17 minutes and 40 seconds. After that, he scored 22 to Kuban, and 18 and 17 to Brooklyn and Oklahoma, NBA teams, respectively. He was in a great form at the Eurobasket, too. He scored 16 to Estonia, 19 to Ukraine, 17 to Latvia, 21 to Belgium, 8 to Lithuania, 20 to Croatia, 23 to Serbia, 26 to Italy, and 24 to Latvia. Of course, he's absolutely the first player in the Czech Republic, but I'm giving all this data just to give you an impression of his fantastic rhythm. He brought that to the club, too, and since Bayern only have Bryant at the center, who can't guard him well enough, this margin is too low for Vesely in his mood. Details