basketball | Friday, December 30, 2022 12:03 PM

Panathinaikos vs Olympiacos Best Bet: The Greek Eternal Derby

Aleksa Drobnjak

Panathinaikos vs Olympiacos Best Bet: Friday, December 30th

This is certainly a special game in European basketball. Tonight, top the Greek club Panathinaikos host rival Olympiacos for the first time in the Euroleague this season at the sold-out OAKA Arena. PAO have been in good form lately, whilst Olympiacos has shown signs of regression.

In this article:

Panathinaikos vs Olympiacos Preview
Panathinakos vs Olympiacos Best Bet

Panathinakos vs Olympiacos Preview

Thu, Dec 30th. 19:00 (UK time)

The sold-out OAKA Arena speaks for itself. Tonight we expect 20,000 ecstatic fans on the PAO side who can help them hold the line. The hype is at a high level, especially after a string of good home results in the Euroleague. PAO have won their last 4 home games in the Euroleague against very respectable opponents. In this period they have shown solid defence and allowed an average of 71.2 points per game.

A fortress such as OAKA is also a factor that gives opponents a lower field goal percentage, so we can see that PAO’s opponents in OAKA hit only 41% from the field. Coach Radonjic can rely on the entire squad tonight, as all injured players have recovered and are available. Panathinaikos spared important players in the last Greek game SL against Apollon (65:96 win).

Olympiacos have their own problems. We have to address the elephant in the room and give our opinion that S. Vezenkov (EL leading PPG) will miss tonight’s game due to a hamstring injury. He has been resting the past week and coach Bartzokas has stated that he does not want to risk his best player. Even if he plays, it will only be for a few minutes.

Olympiacos is in the top half of the table with 9 wins and 6 losses but has lost the last two games against weaker opponents, so it is safe to say that their form is slipping. We believe that the moneyline is correct for tonight and bet on PAO to finally get a win against their eternal rivals with 20,000 fans behind them. They have lost their last 9 encounters in the eternal derby, and tonight is the night they finally break the curse.

Panathinakos vs Olympiacos Best Bet

Although Olympiacos won the last 9 games against PAO, their opponent was in rebuilding mode (probably still is), but their squad for this season seems much more competitive. We will not pay attention to the last games this time, as it’s a derby and as the players use to say “every derby is a game in itself”. Weare backing the Greens to walk off the floor with a win tonight.