European Basketball World Cup Qualifiers Poland vs Italy Preview and Prediction

Date/Time:  09-14-2018, 14:15 EDT

Spread: Italy -9

Total: +148.5

The second and third best squads of Group J of the European 2019 Basketball World Championship Qualifiers face off in the 7^th round, when the third-best Poland, who want to continue on the winning ways and get out of a quadruple tie-breaker, are visiting the second-best Italy, who want to end a small losing streak of their own.

Poland are 3-3 so far in the competition and are tied with 3 more squads in the 3^rd place of Group J, but they remain 3^rd by winning all tie-breakers. In their latest matchup they ended a 2-game losing streak with a road victory against Kosovo, 70-103. Italy are 4-2 so far in the competition and are sitting on the 2^nd place of Group J. They have lost their last two games after winning their first 4 and in their latest matchup they got defeated by the Netherlands on the road, 81-66.

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Poland are led in scoring by Mateusz Ponitka with 13.3 ppg. He also adds 5.7 boards per game, while Maciej Lampe follows with 12 ppg, adding a team-best 6.5 rebounds per game. Adam Waczynski adds 11 ppg and 3 assists per game. The Italians are led in scoring by Amedeo Della Valle with 18.4 ppg. He is followed by Awudu Abass with 12.7 ppg, adding 5 rebounds per game, while Alessandro Gentile adds 12 ppg and leads the team in rebounding with 5.5 per game.

In their latest matchup in a friendly game on 2014, Italy were victorious, 65-73. The Italians have both a better offense with 79 ppg to Poland’s 72.7 and a better defense, allowing 67.5 ppg to Poland’s 68.3. Poland have better accuracy both from inside the arc (47.7% to 46.4%) and from behind the arc (36.4% to 35.9%). Poland also dish more dimes per game (19 to 15), while Italy are better in turnovers committed (9 to 14) and both squads are equal in rebounding, with 37 each. The Italian squad are superior to the Polish one and expect them to utilize the home court advantage and win by more than 9 points today.

Poland vs Italy Prediction: Italy -9 (-112)