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Because of Zvezda's stability during the whole season, I will reduce my bets here, but Partizan's character tells me that this is worth a lot more. Forget everything you've seen in the three head-to-heads this season - except for some tactical details which aren't so important for this prediction, and which the coaches will surely repeat, such as Vujosevic's zone and the paint around Marjanovic - because this Partizan have nothing to do with the one who started the season. Today Vujosevic has the whole team at his disposal who can stand up to Zvezda who is very competitive in this series. Besides, in the Cup's semi-finals we've seen a more competitive Partizan, and if Pavlovic hadn't gotten himself in trouble with penalties, Zvezda wouldn't have marched into the finals. Now Partizan have a new play who, unlike Tepic, will surely draw attention of Zvezda's defense which leaves more space for Pavlovic-Milosavljevic-Muric trio. If Zvezda have a man in Marjanovic on whom Partizan will build their defense, then Partizan have a man in Pavlovic whom Zvezda don't know how to defend. Luckily for them, Pavlovic often did stupid errors during key matches of the season and he often waited the end of the match on the bench. I'm convinced that Baranin learned something from those mistakes and that today he will be active in the last minutes. My expectations are that we'll finally see a tene match of big rivals after three relatively uninteresting this season. The handicap is high enough to make it happen... A very important reason of playing against Zvezda are also their key matches in Euroleague, on home court. When the pressure was the highest, and those were against Galata and Zalgiris in Top 16, they didn't react the way they should have and they couldn't score a single point. Such an important match is also up tonight. Don't forget that Williams has been out of shape for two months. Details

Today we'll witness in Nancy the clash of best defenses of the league and I think this limit is at least three or four points too high. Nancy have the fourth best defense with 73.5 points conceded, although the average is misleading a bit because matches at 170+ points against Boulogne, Rouen, Cholete and other offensive teams raise it. However, if we take a look at the matches against tougher defenses, we'll see that Nancy was left at 137 and 147 points against Dijon, 138 and 136 against ASVEL, 137 and 128 against Gravelines, 141 and 138 against Paris, 131 and 145 against Limoges, and 145 and 126 against Le Mans. Such a row is no accidence and the first head-to-head against Strasbourg at 154 points is an exception. With Clark's return Nancy gain in the offensive part, but we're still talking about a team who rely on the defense, especially in home matches, lef by Falker and Pietrus. Today they're hosting their huge rivals, leaders who will be hard to conquer in an efficient match, and this could turn into a real war.
An average of 65.6 conceded points on average speaks enough of Strasbourg. Nancy are very similar to Dijon. This season Strasbourg went aganst them on 119, 144, 132 (in regular time) and 110 points. With other firm teams they usually went under that margin. I think this will be a match in which both teams will hardly reach 75 points; I expect lower numbers. Details

I think this margin is a consequence of head-to-heads this season. In Zagreb at 153, in Zadar at 128, and then in the Cup semi-finals at 158. But, the current situation is such that I don't see Cibona and Zadar going towards 160 points. Let's start with the worse, Zadar. With Florence's leae they lost a lot in the offense, and Bosnjak's points are not for wasting. In the back line there's no one who can score a lot of points, a lot of things come down to Ivanov and Sobin in the paint. Cibona also don't have too many offense options and it doesn't look great, so Slaven Rimac (probably because of that) forces the defense. They left Cedevita five days ago at 67 points in regular time, Zabok and Zagreb at 61 and 62. Sibenik at 73. I can't say those teams can't be compared to Zadar because Zagreb beat Zadar, in the middle of Zadar, leaving them at 64 points. In any case less than 154 because the match is also important for playoff positions Cibona today have a chance to take the first place on the table; Zadar could be no. three. Details

The key to this match is the absence to Lugi's captain Danielsson, who is irreplaceable in both offense and defense. Lugi are in a 2-1 lead in this series thanks to her and despite Skovde's better game. I don't think Brljic's team can get away once again, especially since there is no one to step in at the pivot position. Left wing Ringdahl will have to take that over and probably won't be able to make room for her back players like Danielsson did. I think Lugi will have just as many problems in defense. Lagerquist has been out with a broken knee for a while now, which means the visitors are without two key defense players today. They only have Ringdahl to count on, but she's not used to played for 60 minutes, which is what today's game will require her to do. I doubt that can do Lugi any good and I expect this series to go on for another final match. Details

We had the same goal margin (20 goals) in Russia an the game finished at 25. Serbia alone scored 17 and should be able to at least do just as well home. I expect them to do even better. Except for the opening game with Spain, all of other four have gone over for Serbia (29, 25, 24, and 22 goals). World League, and this is important, is being played in pools that as shorter in lenght, which resulted in many goals in almost all games this season. Serbia have not yet secured the final tournament but is clearly headed there. Their team is good with good offense with Filipovic as the main scorer. Russia got better, they're doing well, their defense is not too good and they are the team that scored less goals than any other team this season. I believe they can contribute to this game by at 6-7 goals. If so, going over this margin should not be a problem. I expect a nice performances for the viewers with a lot of goals. Details

This Buducnost didn't seem trustworthy from the start of the season, something was off. Sheehey and Capin left, Paunic and Savovic came, Dasic argued with the coach... Besides, if it hadn't been for the huge referee's error in the key match of the season against Partizan, today we would be watching them in Belgrade... Be that as it may, my favorites are Cedevita and I think Repesa's team will today show their true face. Between the two options on Cedevita - handicap or the hosts' under - I choose the second one. The reason is the fact that Cedevita played 26 aways matches this season, and in only five they conceded over 77 - Levski and Zvezda were 78, Unicaja 82, CSKA 97 and Krka 80, in the first match of the season. Everything else was under, and since we've seen clashes against Zaragoza, Gran Canaria, Maccabi, Limoges, Parizan... It's no accident. In two head-to-heads with Buducnost they conceded 70 points, in the last six head-to-heads Cedevita didn't concede more and I don't think they will today. Tactically speaking, Cedevita have a great matchup where Repesa can go with Planinic, they have people for Sehovic and Reynolds, and the biggest danger is Savovic because Cedevita's number fours can't stand up to him. But, Savovic alone can't beat Cedevita. In the last head-to-head he scored 28 points, and Buducnost didn't stand a chance. A stronger bet... Details

Given their performances in World League this season, I expect Slovakia to be a heavier favorite in this game.They have done quite well this season, which cannot be said for Romania. Slovaks played a close match against Hungary home, while putting up a good fight in Hungary the whole time. Romania have, on the other hand, lost badly to Greece and Hungary. They are playing badly and their motivation for this game is questionable. I don't doubt Slovakian motivation since they're playing home and will want to win in the end since they only have one WL win so far. In the previous h2h, Slovakia proved they can deal with this opponent. They had a 7-4 lead at half time, 9-7 in the last quarter, but Romania scored an equalizer one minute before the end. Radu is the only upper hand Romania have but he can't do much alone. He's always one of top scorers at Primorje but his national team colleagues are not good enough to make him score so much. The coach might even rest him a bit because Primorje have a Champions League coming up this Saturday. Slovaks are better quality, play home, in better spirits and I think they stand a better chance of winning here. Details