Analysis: Maccabi - Barcelona, odds and tips

Maccabi or Barcelona? Which team will take the lead in Group D of the Euroleague Top 16 round?  The bookmakers have huge problems predicting the favorite of this match...

The situation in the tournament:
The teams have 2 points each after the victories in the 1st round. Bennet Cantù and Zalgiris Kaunas are also playing in this group.

Teams’ condition:
The Maccabi club will undoubtedly be the favorite before the Thursday match. Although the Israeli team lost four consecutive games to the Pride of Catalonia, at the moment David Blatt’s club is much better than the opponent. It is difficult to talk about the crisis in the visiting team, but it is obvious, that the shape of X. Pascual’s players is far from ideal. The difficult victories over Cantù and Zalgiris confirm this, while Maccabi wins the match after the match without any problems, and has not lost to anyone at home this season.

Injuries, absences, team turnover:
Let’s begin with the guest, Juan Carlos Navarro - the club icon - is back (17 points against Real Zaragoza). The problems begin in the area under the basket, where the Senegalese basketball player Boniface N’Dong is not going to play in the near future. Maccabi was strengthened after the holidays thanks to Langford - Mallet, but the Israeli forward Guy Pnini will not play due to an injury.

History of the meetings:
If we are interested in the bet on the amount of points we should look closely at the result of the last 10 matches between Maccabi and Barcelona in the Euroleague. The basketball players regularly scored over 150 points in each of them. In the 2010/2011 season Barcelona won twice with the results 85:92 and 81:71.

Tips and justifications:
Many experts argue that Barcelona will win the Euroleague, as it plays well in the defense. In fact it is true. The Nokia Arena will serve as an advantage for the teams playing in the "transitional offensive" and Barcelona is one of them, ​​especially taking into account the fact that it has such players as Langford and Mallet. Navarro will strengthen Barcelona's attack, but the intensity of the defense will be reduced due to the absence of N’Dong ... We suggest betting on Over 146.5