basketball | Thursday, December 1, 2022 11:56 AM (Revised at: Thursday, December 1, 2022 11:58 AM)

Anadolu Efes vs Olympiacos Piraeus Best Bet: Atamans’ Brute Force Against Bartzokas’ Synergy

Aleksa Drobnjak

Anadolu Efes vs Olympiacos Piraeus Best Bet: Thursday, December 1st

Coming off an amazing stretch, Efes will host the Greek powerhouse in Sinan Erden Dome on Thursday. It will be a clash of the most potent and efficient offence against the most fluid and synergized offence.

In this article:

Anadolu Efes vs Olympiacos Preview
Anadolu Efes vs Olympiacos Best Bet

Anadolu Efes vs Olympiacos Preview

December 1st, 18:30 UK Time

Efes have won each of their last 5 games, including 3 wins in the Euroleague. They have been shooting the lights out during this game stretch, averaging 55% behind the 3-point line and accumulating 58% from the field respectively. Although they only have a 5W-5L record, they are managing to score 84 points on average (89.1 in last 5 games), whilst dishing out 14.6 assists. We believe Efes will increase their assist numbers since it is expected of them to start hitting open threes at an even higher rate.

They will not be missing any players apart from S. Larkin with an ankle injury. Although his status has been turned to Questionable for every upcoming game, we expect the sonic guard to be back on the court in no time, maybe even tonight.

Olympiacos keep overperforming under Bartzokas, and their star player Sasha Vezenkov has been chosen as the Euroleague MVP in November. The level of synergy coach Barzokas has been able to develop is out of this world, and the standings confirm the story. They are sitting in 3rd place with a 7-3 W/L record so far. They are averaging an astonishing 22 APG, clinching the top spot in the competition, whilst averaging 85 points and a 105 PIR rating.

Olympiacos is known to be a team that wins at home, usually, they do not perform very well on the road, but this year the story is different. My strong belief is that their losing streak on the road against tough opponents will start today. The moneyline will tell us Efes are slight favourites, but if we look at the H2H in the past couple of years, we get a different impression. None of these teams has made drastic roster changes during the summer.

Anadolu Efes vs Olympiacos Best Bet

Olympiacos has not won against Efesin their last 8 direct meetings. Their only win was the one after OT in the 2021 Euroleague campaign. Efes has won 3 out of 4 last away games against Olympiacos and all home games in the last 3-year stretch. We are expecting Micic and Clyburn to be the force tonight and clinch the W against the spread.