I trusted Peristeri and Rytas to win!
This group was very complicated before the last round so I decided to pick Peristeri and Rytas to win their games in order to advance to the play-in stage of the Basketball Champions League.
I recommended on my Telegram channel Peristeri as a winner because I was sure that the Greek project of Spanoulis simply cannot end there. Peristeri tried to improve their roster by bringing in Agravanis, then Persidis, Moraitis was also back from the injury so they had a decent rotation. They smashed Bnei Hertzliya in Athens in the first match of the season and I thought they can steal the win again. Actually, from the whole group, Bnei Hertzliya was the less prepared team to qualify. The odd on the Greek side was 2, so it was worth having a try.
At the same time, in the other game of the group, Rytas had to win in front of the already-qualified Lenovo Tenerife. The reigning champions of the BasketballCL won the group anyway so their motivation for this game was not special. The Spaniards travelled many hours from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Vilnius and this caused them more fatigue increasing Rytas’ chances to win.
Tenerife didn’t start the game with their best lineup and this was also a sign they were more relaxed than usual and it’s normal. Why fight as hell risking injuries when you already won the group? But for Rytas, it was the last chance to reach the play-in and they stayed strong till the end.
Another prediction for this game was that Rytas will score more than 79 points and they won 85-78!
The article was written by Gratian Cormos, a Romanian journalist, book writer, life coach and mentor currently living in Barcelona, Spain.
If you are interested in collaborating with his website brainbasketball.net, in order to publish articles, interviews or other features related to basketball, feel free to contact Gratian Cormos by Whatsapp or Telegram at this Spanish number: +34 612414486.
Photo credit: Basketball Champions League
