Euroleague - Maroussi BC v Union Olimpija

9 December 2009

Preview By Tipster Jadran

Handicap -5.5 : +5.5

I am coming after really bad day,had 0-4 last night so you could take this as a warning,I am cold as ice at the moment,and unable to hit anything.

Maroussi is hosting UO in a game which is crucial for both of these clubs and UO is the only opponent which they have beaten in their rookie EL season.Despite that I rate UO as the better team in this matchup.

In that first game at Slovenia which was very hard to watch due to enormous number of turnovers of both teams(Uo had 22 and Mar had 17 to)better concentration in the crucial moments of the match proved to be crucial,Maroussi won the last quarter by 28-23.The thing that seems to be a huge handicap for Maroussi is that they are forced to play home games in euroleague in OAKA arena,which is,even by their coach s words,Bartzokas,too large.And that goes in favor of guests,there is no pressure at all for the visitors from the crowd.I have seen Maroussi play and although they seem to have deep roster,their spine is PG Keys-SG Lucas-PF Homan and of course center Mavroeidis.Pelekanos will surely be great addition especially in defensive part and the rest of the team is solid but inadequate for something more in the Euroleague.

UO is still hot and cold from game to game,but this moody team will at least come to this game fully healthy which was not the case very often in this season.(except Ilievski).I am still convienced that this team is very strong under the basket and against teams that are not very fast in transition,they can be very good in position,5 on 5 basketball.They had certain problems in sunday against Cibona,a team that plays really good defense at the moment(they have scored 11 in the last quarter) but they have still found the way and won that one by 8.And what to say about the guards in this team-Walsh and Becirovic are very talented players and they are able to hurt any defense in europe,the major problem here is lack of PG(even if newcomer Millage will play he will get few minutes,he played 3.45 against Cibona)and that is the problem from the beggining of the season.

To conclude,I will go with better team here(at least for me) to defend this hendi as I expect at least close game here,mid stakes,GL!