Euroleague: Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos to improve their playoff hopes

Both teams from the capitals of Turkey and Greece should have enough about them to fend off Vitoria and Berlin and help build momentum for a playoff push

With only four playoff spots per group and only 14 games to play in the Top 16 stage, there’s plenty of teams in contention but even at this early stage, teams need to start racking wins especially against those that look out of their depth.

That’s exactly the case for someone like Fenerbahce, who despite having a poor record against Laboral Kutxa in the past will feel that a win against them is within their grasp. They sit in third with a record of 3-2 and play in what on paper looks a weaker group of the two, so a win against a rival still in touching distance early on will be a real boost.

Vitoria are in fifth with a 2-3 record and strangely have a zero points differential after five games, scoring 404 points on offence whilst allowing 404 points on defence. That inconsistency will be their downfall, take Fenerbahce to win this one with the handicap of +3.5 at 9/10.

The other team vying for a better record than their early form is Panathinaikos, who travel to Germany to take on Alba Berlin. They’ve been decent on both ends of the floor so far in the Top 16 round, scoring 387 points whilst only allowing 374, and face Alba knowing they’ve never lost to them.

It’s a tall order for Berlin, who simply haven’t been performing on the offensive end to compete in this one. Go for the Greeks to win at 9/10 with the -2.5 handicap and the team to score over 76.5 points at 17/20 to help them begin to nail down a playoff spot in a tough group.