basketball | Thursday, December 22, 2022 11:53 AM

Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna Best Bet: Two Rising Teams Clash in Vitoria

Aleksa Drobnjak

Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna Best Bet: Thursday, December 22nd

The hottest team in European basketball currently is Baskonia. Most thought their start of the season was a fluke, but they are proving everyone wrong. They will host Scariolo’s Virtus in Vitoria tonight where we expect a quality game between two rising teams.

In this article:

Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna Preview
Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna Best Bet

Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna Preview

Thu, Dec 22nd. 19:30 pm (UK time)

The Vitorian team does not plan on stopping. They have started the season strong, but everyone expected them to fall off during the season due to a heavy Euroleague schedule. They are proving everyone wrong, especially in the last 5-game winning stretch, where they are scoring over 80.2 points, whilst shooting 42% from behind the arc.

However, their most improved parameter is their defence. They have been one of the worst teams in this aspect, but in the last game stretch, they are 4th in the league, allowing their opponents to score only 71.6 points on average whilst shooting 33% from three and only 42% from the field. They managed to clinch the last 5 out of 6 games in the international competition mostly because of their heavy-hitting backcourt of M. Howard and D. Thompson, combining for 30 PPG. Enoch has finally come out of the injury report and is being a menace under the basket. Baskonia will not be facing any injury issues tonight.

Scariolos’ team has finally been playing up to their standards and the quality of the roster. They have managed to win the last 2 international games against Maccabi Tel Aviv and ALBA Berlin. Their main issue is their old roster in my eyes, and they will not be able to deliver consistency on such a tight Euroleague schedule. We are expecting them to break tonight after such a fast-paced offence that breaks its opponents with the Run’n’Gun system and fast transition.

Virtus will not be missing any players tonight either due to injuries. Although we expect coach Scariolo to rest the main players as soon as the game goes in the wrong direction for them, he has also pointed out the fatigue issues his players are experiencing.

Baskonia vs Virtus Bologna Best Bet

Baskonia have won the last 4 consecutive games against this rival and 5 out of the last 6. Although these games have been played a long time ago, they are a parameter of showing Baskonia’s consistency at home through the years. They have managed to build a winning mentality at home by playing in the Euroleague for so long, so the games against Virtus are the ones they are prepared the best for. We see the moneyline at -9.5 tonight if both teams deliver their coach’s requests.