Caja Laboral has disappointed everyone with the way they`ve been playing so far this season considering the talent and potential they`ve got in their squad.
They simply had too many oscillations in their game and that reflected on their results, so the defending Spanish champs are now in a situation to barely pass into top 16 of EL instead of topping the grou00p easily, which is what everybody expected from them in the preseason.
Last week they played a very tough and key game against Zalgiris on the road, which they won after OT despite having a double-digit lead just minutes till the end of regular time.
Mirza Teletovic played the match of his career scoring 32 points and tying the EL record for the most threes hit in one match (9), announcing great form, so together with center Barac, guard San Emeterio and Huertas, it can be said this team can be lethal from all positions.
They wasted a sure lead in a derby match of ACB league against Real Madrid at home last weekend, eventually playing pretty silly in the ending minutes and losing the match, which surely affected their morale.
Partizan qualified to top 16 last week and it seems like that has taken off a huge burden from their backs as it looked like they were playing under a lot of pressure until then, not managing to live up to the expectations and standards set by the club and their former players and coach in the previous seasons.
However, they somehow won at home against Prokom and after that they probably played the best match so far in the season in the local NLB league, beating the leaders Krka by 25 points at home, with all of the home players being in a great mood and centers Jawai and Katic not missing a single shot from the field, which was really amazing to see.
Their PG Jerrels also started to function a bit better and I expect him to play even more comfortable today, while a lot is expected from their terrific forward James Gist as well as NBA prospect Jan Vesely as usual.
Partizan hasn`t won a single away game this entire season except for the one against Prokom.
They lost all the remaining matches both in EL and NLB league, which is a horrible record and they slowly started to get the reputation of a typical home team, which they really weren`t in the previous seasons.
Their new coach Jovanovic looked a bit clueless so far, but I think the team and him are both improving slowly and I expect them to be more focused here in the fight for the 2nd place.
Caja Laboral is always capable of both negative and positive surprises and this time I don`t see them easily winning this one, if they even win at all.
They`re too inconsistent this season and I think the guests might take an advantage of that and using their tough defense break them down and make them nervous.
Surely an intense battle is what I think we`ll be seeing and definitely not an easy home win so a bet on Partizan to cover this double-digit spread really looks worth high stakes.
Good luck.
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Tip: Partizan +10.5
Odd: 1.85
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