This is the beginning of another double week in the Euroleague. A week where most teams have tried to rest their star players in the domestic leagues so they can be physically prepared to take on the rigors of two games in 48 hours plus the travel. Usually here is where I like to look into teams travel schedules and see where they have been and where they are going to get an idea of what to play.
Let’s look at one of my favorite teams this week Crvena Zvezda or Red Star who is by far the hottest team in the league right now with 5 straight victories. Three of those five are against Euroleague powerhouses Real Madrid, CSKA, and Fenerbahce all at home, add that to a 16 point road win in Kaunas against Zalgiris and last week a game we predicted right here in 888sport.com at Tel Aviv against Macabbi that paid us 3.45, not bad at all.
We know that famous expression though, “all good things must come to an end” and this just might be the week, but that doesn’t mean we should turn our backs on this team. This will be their second road game in a row traveling to Vitoria, Spain to take on Baskonia Vitoria tonight at 21:30 CET before returning home to face Panathinaikos on Thursday. Baskonia is 8-1 this season at home and 21-2 in the last two years, pretty impressive numbers. Combine that with a 30 point loss in Athens to Olympiakos last week and Baskonia should win what will be a hard contested match. 888sport.com has the Spanish team favored by 8.5 points but I honestly believe we have to stay with the hot team. Red Star might not pull out the win here which pays 4.10 but those 8.5 points sure look good for a team as hot as they are right now. Crvena Zvezda + 8.5 @ 1.87
The second game will be played tomorrow, Wednesday the 25th at 20:00 CET in Germany when Brose Basket welcomes Real Madrid. Brose plays very well at home but are very beatable especially against a team as deep as Real Madrid. I was at the game in Kaunas last week watching Real just holding on during the first 30 minutes of the game, taking everything that Zalgiris had to give but the depth and experience in the end opened a tied game after the third quarter into a 15 point victory for Real. The same should happen here against Brose. Madrid is a 4.5 point favorite in this game and should be able to run away late. Real Madrid -4.5 @ 1.94
Good Luck and see you again on Thursday!!!!
