Zalgiris vs Olympiacos Prediction 2 January 2025

🔊 What will the teams' desire to play defensively lead to? In the 19th round of the EuroLeague, Zalgiris and Olympiacos will face off. The visitors have an incomparably stronger lineup, making them the favorites. However, the Lithuanians excel in defense, which could complicate things for Bartzokas' squad. It is predicted that the Greeks will be forced to play at a slow pace. The clash in Kaunas will be under the banner of defensive basketball.

📊 HEAD-TO-HEAD

The first-round match took place in October: Olympiacos secured a home victory with a score of 74:68. The Greeks have outplayed Zalgiris for 8 consecutive meetings.

🟢 ZALGIRIS

Zalgiris continues to be a solid mid-table team, sitting in 9th place in the standings. The last two games have noticeably tarnished their statistics: losses to Maccabi Tel Aviv (78:95) and ASVEL (72:78). These matches are equally surprising in that the Lithuanians performed poorly on their side of the court. Despite these setbacks, they still lead the EuroLeague in defense, allowing 76.1 points per game. Arguably, their tenacious defensive basketball will be the key to success against Olympiacos. Relying heavily on offense is not advisable - the Lithuanians are among the worst in shot conversion (42.7%). A significant amount of time, the ball is in the hands of former San Antonio and Lakers player Lonnie Walker. However, recently, the guard's shooting has been off, which significantly eases the task for Olympiacos' defense.

🔴 OLYMPIACOS

The Greeks have gained excellent form, sharing the top spot with Monaco. Including domestic competitions, Olympiacos has six consecutive victories. In the last EuroLeague round, they managed to snatch a win against Milan (84:83). Offense is a strong suit for the Greek team. But we understand that all scoring talents are best showcased at high speeds. With Zalgiris, it is unlikely they will manage to play at a high tempo. Here, their decent defensive statistics will come in handy: allowing 81.3 points on average (5th in the league). Additionally, Olympiacos plays very disciplined basketball, with only 19.1 fouls per game (3rd in the league). We assume that the visitors can play in classic Greek style - slowly, tenaciously, and very aggressively. Head coach Bartzokas is an advocate of this style, so the trip to Kaunas is unlikely to involve open and attacking basketball.

📝 EDITOR'S PREDICTION

Bookmakers cannot identify a clear favorite; however, there is a slight tilt in odds favoring the Greeks. They have a more top-tier lineup that not only has played together for several seasons but is simply deeper. Bartzokas can maintain a consistently high level of play for all 40 minutes of the match. The coach of Zalgiris does not have such an option. Individual players will gather their statistics; however, this is unlikely to result in a high level of overall execution. In a tenacious basketball game, Olympiacos will also not score much - especially since Zalgiris is a top defensive team. Everything may be decided in the last quarter. Possessions will mostly be lengthy, so we do not see any prerequisites for an abundance of points scored. Our editorial points to under 164.5 total points.