Euroleague Valencia vs Unicaja Spread and Prediction

In the 16^th round of action the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball, we have an all-Spanish showdown, when the Eurocup champions of Unicaja Malaga (7-8), are hosting the Spanish champions Valencia Basket Club (4-11) on Thursday, January 4^th 2018. The game takes place at the Martin Carpena Arena in the city of Malaga, Spain.

Date/Time:  01-04-2018, 14:45 EDT

Spread: Unicaja -3.5

Total: +153

Unicaja have a 7-8 record so far this season and currently sit on the 10^th place of the league table. They have four consecutive wins and in their last game they won on the road against Maccabi Tel Aviv with a 78-89 score. They are led in scoring by Nemanja Nedovic with 15.2 ppg and a team high 4.3 assists per game. He is followed by Adam Waczynski with 10.1 ppg, while Ray McCallum adds 9.7 ppg and 2.9 assists per game.

Top Basketball Bookmakers

Valencia have a 4-11 record so far this season and are currently tied with two more teams in the last place of the league table. In their last game they snapped a ten-game losing streak by winning at home against Panathinaikos with a 67-63 score. They are led in scoring by Erick Green with 16.6 ppg, while Boban Dubljevic adds 10.6 ppg and 5.4 rebounds per game. Tibor Pleiss follows with 10 ppg and a team high 5.7 rebounds per game.

In their previous matchup on the first round, Valencia won easily at home by 38 points (91-53). Unicaja are 4-3 at home so far this season, while Valencia are 1-7 on the road. Unicaja are slightly better offensively, scoring 76.6 ppg to Valencia’s third-worse of 76.1, while Valencia are better defensively, allowing 79.1 ppg to Unicaja’s 80.4. Valencia have better percentages both in field goals, shooting with 45.5% to Unicaja’s 44.4% and in 3-pointers, shooting with 38.9% to Unicaja’s 35.1%. They are also better in assists made, with 17.6 to Unicaja’s 16.7, while Unicaja are better in rebounding, grabbing 32.2 to Valencia’s second-worse of 27.8 and both team commit exactly the same number of turnovers per game (12). Valencia have been extremely weak on the road and underwhelming in Euroleague generally, so pick Unicaja for a home victory by more than 4 points today.

Prediction: Unicaja -3.5 (-112)