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First game ended for Panathinaikos, with a 5-point victory over Siena. A buzzer beater 3-point shot at last seconds ruined -6,5 point handicap, but it should have be a winning choise, according to the teams differences.
Same strategy and reason today, only adding Diamantidis return, who may play if needed. Not ready for much time today, but if the team needs him, he 'll be there.
I have faith in Panathinaikos and coach Obradovic abilities.

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Second choice for today, will be Olympiakos’ game. Reds managed to finish first on their group, after an unpredicted away victory against Tau. They look in good shape lately and after Childress’ come-back, coach Yiannakis is happy to see George Printezis fully fit again, ready to help the team. Olympiakos can use all three Americans at Euroleague matches, although only two are allowed to play at Greek League. Michalis Pelekanos and Sofoklis Schortsianitis will be outruled today. Real Madrid came to Greece without any injury problems, so they ‘ll have full squad available tonight. Both teams are aiming for a win –for different reasons each. I see home win more close, but I ‘m more keen on over choise. Both teams score a lot and have weak defenses. Summing up, I expect a high scoring game, with both teams scoring more than 80 points each.

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First game of the Final-8 Euroleague tournament, will be Panathinaikos against Siena. The Greeks have been on a good run recently despite their big absence, which is Dimitris Diamantidis. Zeliko Obradovic has to fill in captain’s gap and the man who will be called up for this job is Vasilis Spanoulis. Apart from that, no other absences for home team. As for Siena, they will also have a big absence, as they see their center Kristof Lavrinovic having a knock. So, this will be an advantage for Panathinaikos centers(Mike Batiste and Nikola Pekovic), who will be picked from coach Obradovic as the main attacking strategy. Another fact that took in mind, is that the OAKA stadium will be crowded with 20.000 crazy PAO fans, who always help him achieve his goals. To sum up, Panathinaikos is a really great team, mostly when playing in front of his fans and Siena is not bad, but simply not the same quality. Handicap may be maximum up to 15 points for PAO and minimum 8.

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One of the top quality rosters of the league, facing one of the worse. I think 6 point handicap for Marousi worth a risk, against a team like Trikala, even if this is one of their last chances to avoid relagation. Diamantopoulos out for Marousi, while Trikala have full squad available.

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Euroleague games take part today and Panathinaikos travelled to Rome to play against Roma, on his way to play-off games. PAO are on a great boost, after -pretty easy- victory over their rivals, Olympiakos, for the Greek cup final and the want to continue the same way. They 'll be facing Olympiakos again at the weekend, in a more important game this time, for Greek league, which will make clear who will have home advantage on play-offs. But PAO players have tha quality and experience to stay focused in each game at a time. And today is the game against Italians, in which they are very motivated in order to finish 1st at their group. All players are ready, except Mike Batiste, who travelled to Rome with the team, but probably coach Obradovic won't risk it, because he is more important for Olympiakos game. Young Sermantini will be called to cover his gap at the bench, if Obradovic desides to leave him out. As for roma, they don't have any absences at all and probably today it will be Ruben Douglas debut at Euroleague. Summing up, at first game PAO did not waste any time and slashed Roma down. Italians defenceive approach of the game(zonal marking, mainly) is more than easy for Panathinaikos shooting guards to overpass. I think PAO will have an easy evening, by rotating their squad in the end, because weekends hard game. Handicap seem not big to me.
Note: Roma coach is Nando Gentile. Sani Becirovic plays for them and Dejan Bodiroga is the general manager of the team. What do they have in common? All of them won Euroleague titles with Panathinaikos and Greeks' board honored them for that in the first phase game.

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The first trophy at basketball is to be conquered by the two arch-rivals, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. Always those kind of matches attracted the interest of all fans of basketball. But hooligan fights that took part last 2-3 years, have made all fans of basketball watch these games from TV. For todays final the two teams will have 600 fans each. As for team news, Panathinaikos looks in good shape, after dominating easily over Panellinios. Olympiakos remain first in Greek league, but their defence is awful. They managed to concede 75 points from really weak AEK. No absences for coach Obradovic, who is happy to see all PAO players fully fit. Olympiakos' only question remain newcomer Pargo, who wants to play, but the doctors will make their decision a few minutes before the game starts. Even if Pargo wont play, it's not that big problem for coach Yiannakis, who made his plans without him. To sum up, Panathinaikos performs better on court against Olympiakos and Yiannakis has not good stats against Obradovic. Panathinaikos has more solid defence and their 3-point shooters won't have big pressure today, because of Olympiakos' weak defence game. So, I go with Panathinaikos win, with 4-point handicap.

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The first trophy at basketball is to be conquered by the two arch-rivals, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. Always those kind of matches attracted the interest of all fans of basketball. But hooligan fights that took part last 2-3 years, have made all fans of basketball watch these games from TV. For todays final the two teams will have 600 fans each. As for team news, Panathinaikos looks in good shape, after dominating easily over Panellinios. Olympiakos remain first in Greek league, but their defence is awful. They managed to concede 75 points from really weak AEK. No absences for coach Obradovic, who is happy to see all PAO players fully fit. Olympiakos' only question remain newcomer Pargo, who wants to play, but the doctors will make their decision a few minutes before the game starts. Even if Pargo wont play, it's not that big problem for coach Yiannakis, who made his plans without him. To sum up, Panathinaikos performs better on court against Olympiakos and Yiannakis has not good stats against Obradovic. Panathinaikos has more solid defence and their 3-point shooters won't have big pressure today, because of Olympiakos' weak defence game. So, I go with Panathinaikos win, with 4-point handicap.

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The first trophy at basketball is to be conquered by the two arch-rivals, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. Always those kind of matches attracted the interest of all fans of basketball. But hooligan fights that took part last 2-3 years, have made all fans of basketball watch these games from TV. For todays final the two teams will have 600 fans each. As for team news, Panathinaikos looks in good shape, after dominating easily over Panellinios. Olympiakos remain first in Greek league, but their defence is awful. They managed to concede 75 points from really weak AEK. No absences for coach Obradovic, who is happy to see all PAO players fully fit. Olympiakos' only question remain newcomer Pargo, who wants to play, but the doctors will make their decision a few minutes before the game starts. Even if Pargo wont play, it's not that big problem for coach Yiannakis, who made his plans without him. To sum up, Panathinaikos performs better on court against Olympiakos and Yiannakis has not good stats against Obradovic. Panathinaikos has more solid defence and their 3-point shooters won't have big pressure today, because of Olympiakos' weak defence game. So, I go with Panathinaikos win, with 4-point handicap.

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The last game of this round is a local derby between two arch-rivals, PAOK and Aris. Things at PAOK remain the same and the only positive thing that showed up yesterday, was the information that players will be paid by a sponsorship(OPAP) of the club and with the money collected from todays tickets. As for team news, Marmarinos is not considered any more as part of the squad, after the fight with coach Kalafatakis and Johnsen won't be able to play too much. Aris facing lots of injury absences. Young Skordilis and Gavel will be out of todays game. Savvas Iliadis will play, but not 100% fit. As for Wright and Tsardalis, their participation or not, will be decided a few minutes before the start of the game. Many problems for both teams, but team quality is very big. Aris has the motivation today, because if they win they see themselves in third position, which leads to Euroleague! PAOK fans don't really seem interested, as they used to be in these kind of games and not expected more than 3.000-4.000. Aris can win this, but they have to try hard. So, I pick Aris win, with short 2-point handicap, but with low stakes, because of Aris injury problems.

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Mid-week match programme starts with a past-times derby, between AEK and Olympiakos. Unfortunately, teams are not in the same level now. Olympiakos far better quality as a team and more bench depth, while AEK is based on 7-8 players with less quality than Olympiakos’. AEK has sold all tickets for tomorrows match and their court will be crowed with AEK fans, creating a tremendous atmosphere, as they use to do in all AEK matches, especially derbies, like the one tomorrow. Olympiakos players are more focused on the Greek cup final, versus PAO(arch-rival), but they still need the win against AEK in order to keep +1 handicap from Panathinaikos, on the table. As for absences, no injury reports for AEK, since Trevor Bryant will play(but not 100% fit) and Olympiakos only miss will be newcomer Pargo, who is still unfit and long-term absent, Josh Childress. Both teams score heavily when attacking –especially Olympiakos, with players that have many ways of scoring- and AEK as well, by many three-point shots and a lot drives. In defence, bot teams have lots of problems. Olympiakos, despite coach Yiannakis game play based on tight defence, is not really concentrated and AEK players simply don’t have the quality to be good in all parts of game. I expect a high scoring game, like the one on first round, with Olympiakos ending as a winner. So, I will go for the over 152,5 points.

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PAOK in deep financial crisis. They struggle to keep their mind on court and -to be honest- they managed to do so pretty well. Coach Kalafatakis, despite his poor level of coaching, did a great job on that section. Even though PAOK lost Vasiliadis, Gregory and Mulaomerovic due to chairmans' demand, in order to keep the teams budget low, still all other players perform at their best level. As for absences, for Egaleo won't play Gizoyiannis and Aggelopoulos(both called up at the army) and for PAOK Symchak will be out(was hurt during training). So, PAOK, besides their problems kept playing concentraded games, especially on defence wich is their "hit point". Egaleo are aiming for a win in this match, but they lack in attack again and that's what kept them far from victory at last game against Olimpia Larisa. Their main focus will be on defence again.
To sum up, it's kind of surprise for me under line set on 153,5 points, so I will go for this value.