Euroleague.net's team of experts have used their expertise to make some bold predictions for the first double-round week of the season
Bold predictions, Rounds 3-4: How many surprises will we see?
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It's time for the first double-round week of the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season, with Round 3 taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday before Round 4 comes around on Thursday and Friday.
Before the action gets underway, the Euroleague.net experts have each come up with one bold prediction heading into this double-round week.
ASVEL to win two more this week
by Javier Gancedo
Last week, I guessed my bold prediction correctly as ASVEL grabbed its first victory, so I am going to double down on that and predict that the team will get two more victories this week. ASVEL has plenty of experienced players like David Lighty, Joffrey Lauvergne and Nando De Colo who are ready to lead their team to a road victory against ALBA Berlin. De Colo has fond memories of Uber Arena, where he earned 2016 Final Four MVP honors while leading CSKA Moscow to the EuroLeague title, his first of two continental crowns won with that team.
That victory should give ASVEL even more momentum, and a big crowd should be expected at LDLC Arena to see Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and former swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot in town. ASVEL can match Baskonia's physicality while Neal Sako and Theo Maledon have been really solid until now. If you ask me, things look good for Pierre Poupet's team! Fun fact: Coach Poupet played with Baskonia star Chima Moneke at Denain ASC Voltaire in the French second division back in the 2018-19 campaign.
Olympiacos to catch fire this week
by Geoff Gillingham
When Georgios Bartzokas’ Olympiacos side is clicking, it is like listening to Mozart, Beethoven or Bach – an experience you don’t want to miss. Slowly but surely, I think that the Reds are on the right track towards finding the right tune once again, aided particularly by the re-signing of star forward Sasha Vezenkov.
Fellow arrival Evan Fournier is also starting to find his groove, and I think Olympiacos will make a splash this week, swatting aside EA7 Emporio Armani Milan at SEF before going on the road and defeating Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Coach Bartzokas is slowly getting more of his players back from injury, too, making Olympiacos an even greater force.
Two undefeated teams will remain after Round 4
by Frankie Sachs
We enter Round 3 with four teams boasting 2-0 records. They are defending champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, AS Monaco, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. That list will drop to three almost as soon as the week’s games start, since Fenerbahce hosts Zvezda on Tuesday night. I predict a Fenerbahce victory… followed by a triumph for the Greens at Paris Basketball later that evening. On Wednesday, Monaco visits FC Barcelona and I forecast a road win there.
That gives us three teams with perfect record when Round 4 begins. First, Fener heads to the German capital where it should finish the evening as the first team to four wins. Panathinaikos will face its first stiff test of the season at Real Madrid in a rematch of last season’s championship game. With a fresh Facu Campazzo (after he serves a one-game ban in Round 3), Los Blancos will snare a statement win at Wizink Center. And on Friday, Monaco holds off Virtus Segafredo Bologna to join Fenerbahce as the only undefeated team through four games.
Cordinier to keep on rolling
by Igor Petrinovic
After the first two rounds of the regular season, the man atop of the scoring charts is Virtus' Isaia Cordinier, who scored 16 points in a Round 1 loss against Anadolu Efes Istanbul and 23 points in a Round 2 defeat at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
Closest to Cordiner's average of 19.5 points is his countryman Mathias Lessort (18.0 ppg.), followed by Efes center Dan Oturu (17.5 ppg.), then last year's second-best scorer, Wade Baldwin (17.0), and five players posting 16.5 points: Kendrick Nunn, Isaiah Canaan, Shabazz Napier, TJ Shorts and Tyrique Jones.
After two rounds, it means that Cordnier has scored just three total points more than Lessort, four more than Oturu or five more than Baldwin. So the margins are small, and with two rounds on slate this week, there will be many changes. However, I think Cordinier remains hot and continues to be one of Virtus' go-to guys, leaving him as the EuroLeague's top scorer once Round 4 ends on Friday.
