EuroLeague Final Four: Barcelona vs. Armani Milano Preview, Odds, Prediction

With Pau Gasol in the team and Nikola Mirotic, Barcelona is a massive favorite in their EuroLeague semifinals against Armani Milano. Though, for some of you who didn’t know, Armani Milano is a bigger basketball team than the Spanish powerhouse, as they have four European titles, compared to Barca’s two. Though, they were a long time ago, but still, the Italian side has some sort of an aura surrounding them. Plus, they are absolute underdogs meaning that the pressure factor is on their side.

Preview

Barcelona (-250) comes to this tournament as the strongest defense in the entire competition. The Spaniards allow 72.8 points per match, by far the lowest, limiting the opponents to just 0.91 points per possession. We don’t need to tell you that they also force the rivals to have the worst shooting percentages. And turnovers forced.

Sarunas Jasikevicius is the reason for that, with the Lithuanian coach tightening up the defense and demanding more energy in that part of the game. He is known as a very tactical and methodical person and one of the most talented people in this business.

Nikola Mirotic does most of the work here regarding the offense, dropping 15.5 points per game with a fantastic 60.2% shooting from the field and 42% from downtown. Cory Higgins adds 12.9, and Brandon Davis 12.1 points each game, while Nick Calathes orchestrates the attack with 6.6 assists and perfectly balanced playmaking decisions.

Armani Milano (+225) has two big weapons here. The first is Sergio Rodriguez, one of the best European playmakers in the last two decades, the heart and the soul of this side. The second is Ettore Messina, arguably the second-best European head coach behind Zeljko Obradovic. This Italian is a basketball wizard, and do know that this side can beat any team with him in charge.

After reading these two names, we aren’t surprised to see that the Armani has the fewest number of turnovers in the entire competition, 11 per game. That is because of Rodriguez and Messina’s strategy, but mostly because of the Spanish playmaker.

Kevin Punter is the leading scorer with 14.1 points, Shavon Shields adds 13.9, while Malcolm Delaney scores 11.6. The experienced Luigi Datome comes off the bench to add 7.3 buckets and boosts the offense in certain moments. Messina made a very potent offense in terms of diversity, with several players being able to score at any given moment.

Head to Head Games

In both matches this year, Barcelona was better than Armani Milano. The first in Spain ended 87-71 due to the fantastic closure of the hosts, and the second in Milan saw Barca triumphing 72-56.

Prediction

Barcelona is the absolute favorite here, and our money is on them. The odds might not be too high, but on the other side, they are safe. Now, if you want to increase the winnings, try with Barcelona covering the spread, which is -6 points, because we truly believe in their superiority in this event. We do respect Milano, but it seems that they won’t have the answer on all coming from Barca’s side on the other side. Overall, Blaugrana is a better team in all aspects.

Pick: Barcelona

Here is the preview of the match between CSKA Moscow and Anadolu Efes.