Astana - CSM Oradea
Date: 05-Nov-2014
Category European Basketball
Oradea are in trouble, big troruble. They are in a poor form and have problems with injuries. Subotic, Tibirna,Dillon and Pantic are injured, last one is slightly injured but eventually he will play but not for to many minutes. The only good news for the guests is the return of Adrian Gutoaia after an injury but he isn't fully fit so most likely he will play around 10 minutes.
All of this players are heavy pieces from Oradea's puzzle. This is the main reason of their poor performances so far. They got eliminated by Sibiu in the Romanian Cup, lost to the same Sibiu away from home, at Cluj-Napoca with 34 points against Universitatea, the only victory they have is against the other Cluj team from the championship but that teams plays with a lot of youngsters, they will relegate for sure but still managed to score 80 points against Oradea.
Astana are a very good team, one of the best teams from this competition and will most probably get to the final 4. Except them, Nanterre, Ulm and maybe Brindisi from Italy are favourites to win the competition.
Another important fact is the distance. Oradea aren't used to travel this much, their longest journeys were of 500 kilometers at Constanta in the other part of Romania, last year they travelled at Samara to play against Kranye Krylya but not in this conditions, with a long list of injured players.
So, if Astana will play their best at least two quarters they should cover this handicap. They are the better team and should take advantage of their home ground.
Pick: Astana -16.5
Stake 10 Odd 1.85