EuroLeague Basketball Week 2 Predictions

The biggest game in Week 2 of the EuroLeague sees Spanish rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid go head-to-head at the Palau Blaugrana on Thursday night.

The two teams had contrasting fortunes in Week One, with Real being the 68-71 victors at Panathinaikos whilst Barcelona lost 70-80 to Olympiacos.

It was Barcelona who enjoyed the better head-to-head record in the 2021-22 season, though, winning this fixture 93-80 while also claiming a 68-86 victory in Madrid.

Barca eventually topped the table in the regular season, but it was Madrid that reached the Championship game before losing to Anadolu Efes.

Defending champions Anadolu Efes got the new season off to an impressive start, with a comfortable 72-59 win over Crvena zvezda.

Small forward Will Clyburn came off the bench to be the top scorer with 19 points and will be hoping to start on Thursday, against a Monaco team that also opened with a win in Week One.

Saša Obradović’s men claimed a 66-83 win over Virtus Bologna, with guard Mike James the current top scorer in the EuroLeague after firing 26 points.

It was the hosts that won this fixture last season, in what was a high-scoring affair. Monaco ran out the 102-80 victors in Round 29.

Two teams that lost their opening games face each other at the Aleksandar Nikolić Hall on Thursday, with Crvena zvezda and Panathinaikos going head-to-head.

Both sides failed to make the playoffs last season and will need to improve on Week One’s performances if they are to challenge this term.

It was the hosts that romped to victory in this match in the 2021-22 campaign, with an 81-48 success in Belgrade – and home advantage could prove key again.

The Virtus Segafredo Arena is the venue for Thursday’s other EuroLeague fixture, as Virtus Bologna play host to Bayern Munich.

After heavy losses in Week One, both teams need to respond and Bayern are likely to see this as a good chance to kick-start their season against a newly promoted team.

The German outfit made the playoffs last term but will need to improve on their field goals percentage, which was just 42.9 in their defeat to Fenerbahçe.

After their impressive opening 10-point win over Barcelona, Olympiacos have sent out a message to the rest of the league

The Greek outfit finished second in the regular season table last term and will expect on Friday to beat a Žalgiris team, who lost a tight clash to Maccabi Tel Aviv in their opener.

One big plus for the Lithuanian outfit was the performance of American Kevarrius Hayes, who scored 16 points and made six offensive rebounds.

Two teams that recorded opening-game victories meet in Istanbul on Friday evening, as Fenerbahçe face Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The hosts provided arguably the performance of Week One when they won 62-74 in Munich against Bayern – whilst Maccabi Tel Aviv edged out Žalgris 84-83.

Fenerbahçe won this fixture 90-79 last season, with Devin Booker scoring 22 points; however, the American only got eight minutes of court time in the opening match of this season.

Having missed out on the playoffs by one place last season, Baskonia made an impressive start to the new campaign with a 71-81 win over Valencia Basket last week.

They play their first home match of the season on Friday against a Partizan team that are looking to bounce back, following a 100-84 defeat in Berlin.

Baskonia center Maik Kotsar leads the stats in the Performance Index Rating, after scoring 21 points and claiming four assists and nine rebounds during Week One.

It was a successful Week One for both Milano and Alba Berlin and we should know more of where these teams are following Friday’s matchup at the Mediolanum Forum.

Milano, who lost to champions Anadolu Efes in last season’s playoffs, claimed a 62-69 success at Lyon-Villeurbanne.

Berlin, meanwhile, racked up three figures against Partizan with Israeli star Tamir Blatt scoring 16 points whilst Luke Sikma also chipped in with 15.

The hosts won this fixture 84-76 last season but Berlin look likely to push them all the way, going off of their opening game display.

Newly-promoted Valencia Basket lost their opening game to Spanish rivals Baskonia, with a last-quarter struggle eventually leading to their defeat.

They now face a Lyon-Villeurbanne team that also lost in Week One, going down at home to Milano despite Nando de Colo bagging 18 points.

Lyon only won eight of their 28 matches last season and will need to improve on their 76.9% free-throw success rate from Week One.