At Stark Arena, Barcelona faces Real Madrid in the second semifinal of the EuroLeague Final Four.
The “Catalans” seek to win in order to compete in their second consecutive, and seventh overall, EuroLeague Championship Game.
They have won their regular series against their domestic arch-rivals (2-0). On an interesting note, they have won eight of the last 10 games against Real.
For his part, Nikola Mirotic (averaging 16.6 points and 5.1 rebounds this year) has been named EuroLeague MVP of the regular season.
He has to keep his performance level up in order to improve his team’s chances to advance to the Championship Game.
On the other hand, Real Madrid will depend on both experience and talent in this Final Four. Veteran star Sergio Llull (averaging 11.7 points in the playoffs) told reporters that “we need to stick to ourselves, to be ourselves”.
In form Guerschon Yabusele (averaging 11.9 points and 4.7 rebounds this year) is also a key factor for Real. He contributed a lot in his team’s playoff series sweep against Maccabi Tel-Aviv (47 points in three games).
Therefore, this semifinal is surely pretty tough to pick a winner. My betting prediction is that Nikola Mirotic will score more than 15 points tonight (odds at 1.85). I think that he is capable of even being the top scorer tonight (odds at 2.50).
In addition, I am predicting that both teams will score more than 74 points each (odds at 2.22), as I am expecting an offensive approach by both teams.
Safe Bet:
Nikola Mirotic over 15.5 points (1.87)
Value Bet:
Nikola Mirotic top scorer (2.50)
Barcelona and Real Madrid over 74.5 points (2.22)
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