Supercopa ACB, 26 September, 2014

BASKETBALL - SUPERCOPA ACB

REAL MADRID v VALENCIA BASKET  

Real Madrid now know their rivals for the Supercopa Endesa 2014-15, which will be held on 26 and 27 of September in Vitoria. Pablo Laso's men, who are the reigning champions, will meet Valencia tonight in the semifinal at the Fernando Buesa Arena. If they make it through to the final, they will play against the winner of the other semi between Laboral Kutxa and Barcelona the day after.

Last head-2-head official games

Real Madrid – Pamesa Valencia : 105 – 110

Pamesa Valencia – Real Madrid : 75 – 82

Pamesa Valencia – Real Madrid : 88 – 79

Real Madrid – Pamesa Valencia : 87 – 84

Real Madrid this season looks like a very good team. Although  they lost 2 key players : Nikola Mirotic, who went in NBA to Chicago Bulls and Tremmel Darden, who transferred to Olympiakos, they brought very talented and experienced players in this summer transfer period. Newcomers Andres Nocioni(Laboral Kutxa), Jonas Maciulis(Panathinaikos), Gustavo Ayon(Atlanta Hawks), Facundo Campazzo(Penarol), KC Rivers(Reno, D-League) along super players like Rudy Fernandez, Felipe Reyes, Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodriguez, Ioannis Bouroussis… I could mention whole roster… they just look like a dream team.

Sergio Llull and Jonas Maciulis spoke to the media ahead of Real Madrid's Endesa Super Cup semi-final match against Valencia Basket. "The team is really up for it and is looking forward to it, because it's the first trophy of the season and our aim is to win it," the man from Menorca said.

Maciulis: “We have a very good team and the group of players we have is fantastic. I feel really comfortable here. This team has huge challenges ahead of it and we're going to fight for every trophy and championship that we take part in. Real Madrid is one of the major teams in Europe and playing here is a dream for any player."

Preseason results 

Palma Air Europa – Real Madrid : 76 – 82

Real Madrid – Pamesa Valencia : 58 – 80

Unicaja Malaga – Real Madrid : 87 – 83

Real Madrid – Estudiantes : 74 – 76

Cangrejeros de Santurce – Real Madrid : 83 – 103

Guerreros – Real Madrid : 67 – 79

Valencia made a great season last year, but they lost a few important players : Justin Doellman, who transferred to Barcelona, Oliver Lafayette, who transferred to Olympiakos and Ksistof Lavrinovic, but they have a decent roster with players like Luke Harangody, Romain Sato, Kresimir Loncar, Bojan Dubljevic and remain a dangerous team.

Preseason results 

Valencia – Murcia : 80 – 52

Cajasol – Valencia : 89 – 95 OT

Unicaja – Valencia : 63 – 92

Real Madrid – Pamesa Valencia : 58 – 80

Valencia - Nizhny Novgorod : 65 – 77

Valencia – Zaragoza : 80 – 73

My prediction

I see Valencia giving everything to win this game, but will be very difficult for them. I think if they want to have a chance in this game, they must pay more attention for offence than defence.. it’s practically impossible to stop Real’s shooting stars, all they can try to do is outscore Real.. It’s the first official game for both teams, I think that the defences are still not on top, both teams are playing offensively, especially Real and I expect a game with a lot of points, as we saw in their last head-2-head games and in preseason games.   

• over 160.5 points - 1.90   | ✓

LABORAL KUTXA VITORIA v BARCELONA 

Last head-2-head official games

Laboral Kutxa – Barcelona : 71-95

Barcelona – Laboral Kutxa : 92–87

Barcelona – Laboral Kutxa : 91-75

Barcelona – Laboral Kutxa : 86-97

Laboral Kutxa – Barcelona : 68-80

Laboral Kutxa     Barcelona : 76-72

Laboral has changed almost completely their roster for this season. A lot of players walk away : Lamar Odom(NY Knicks), Nocioni(Real Madrid), David Jelinek(Krasnie Krylia), Giuseppe Poeta (La Bruixa), Tibor Pleiss(Barcelona), Hanga Adam, Leonardo Mainoldi and the enumeration can go on.. Although they have a few interesting players : Heurtel, San Emeterio, Ryan Gomes, Shengelia, Lamont Hamilton, Causeur, Tillie… 

Preseason results

Gipuzkoa Basket 67-52 Laboral Kutxa Vitoria

CAI Zaragoza 64-63 Laboral Kutxa Vitoria

Laboral Kutxa Vitoria 66-69 Fiatc Joventut

Laboral Kutxa Vitoria 73-64 UCAM Murcia

Aguada 77-81 Caja Laboral Baskonia

Peñarol 79-78 Caja Laboral Baskonia

Barcelona is a super team, like every year, they are title contenders in Liga Endesa and in Euroleague too. Important players who left the team : Kostas Papanikolaou(Houston Rockets), Joey Dorsey(Houston Rockets), Victor Sada(Andorra), Jacob Pullen(Liaoning) and Erazem Lorbek. New players on board : Roger Grimau, Tibor Pleiss – who I think will be a very important piece this year –, Tomas Satoransky, Justin Doelmann, Deshaun Thomas, Marcus Eriksson, Milovan Draskovic.    

Preseason results

FC Barcelona 71-65 FIATC Joventut

FC Barcelona 91-85 Baloncesto Seville

Asvel Villeurbanne 80-76 FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona 93-57 Pau-Orthez

My prediction

Laboral changed a lot of players this summer, I don’t think their defence is very homogeneous. Barca will be highly motivated to play&win the final probably against Real Madrid. In the past years, Laboral showed a very offensive playing style and if we look at Laboral Kutxa preseason games we can see that they like to score and that they doesn't show decent defensive play. Barcelona has super shooters, I expect high-scoring game. These two teams played last year in this phase of Supercopa in game ended with 171 points : Laboral Kutxa – Barcelona : 73 – 98.             

• over 154.5 points - 1.90    | ✓