Valencia Basket needs the home win vs. Joventut to reach a Spanish Cup spot
Today all the participants to the Spanish Cup will be decided. 6 teams are fighting for the last 3 places remaining. Bilbao Basket, Burgos, Unicaja, Joventut, Valencia and Gran Canaria are the teams involved. While for some of them there are very small chances to get there for the Taronja team is very likely to happen. All they need is to win their home game against Joventut Badalona because they don’t depend on other results.
The good news for Valencia is they have played at home last round of the Euroleague and they are not so tired. They have lost with the minimum margin against Olympiacos Piraeus (91-93) showing a great offensive effort. The bad news is the absence of the main center Mike Tobey, injured again. The other big man, Brock Motum played only 1 minute against Olympiacos, but Valencia Basket still has Bojan Dubljevic and Louis Labeyrie to help in the paint. It’s interesting to see how they will stop the Slovenian giant Alen Omic (2.16 m). Jordan Loyd was also sidelined in the last Euroleague game for Valencia, while Shawn Dawson is missing for Joventut.
Valencia has the first chance to win the game, in spite of these absentees because their roster is much better. Many of their players remained with the team during last season what makes the group cohesion even stronger. Some of them gave Valencia Basket the only Spanish league title the club achieved.
On the other side, Joventut Badalona has as well a couple of solid players, with Euroleague and Eurocup experience like Nikos Zizis, Klemen Prepelic, Alen Omic, Luke Harangody, but as you go deeper the bench is not so valuable as Valencia’s one. The larger quality rotation can make a big difference in such a game for Valencia Basket and also the crowds of Taronja supporters who will invade La Fonteta for this encounter.
Photo: Euroleague
Gratian Cormos
