EuroLeague Round 20 Preview and Betting Tips for Tuesday, January 11, 2022

The EuroLeague is finally back. On Tuesday, January 11, we’re going to see the first three EuroLeague games of the year. Originally, Round 20 was supposed to start with seven games but, unfortunately, four of them got postponed for COVID-19.

The three games that will go as planned are:

If you would like to bet on these games, you’re in the right place. I will now analyze each of those matchups, dissect the betting odds, and share with you my top betting picks. If all this sounds good, let’s start!

Olympiacos is sitting in the #3 position in the EuroLeague standings with a 12-5 record. What needs to worry the Greeks ahead of their trip to the Turkish capital is that all those five losses happened on the road.

The good news for Olympiacos is that Round 20 brings them a fantastic chance to improve their away record. Although Fenerbahce is far from being a weak team, the fact is that there are some serious injury problems in its squad.

Vesely had the biggest +/- in Fenerbahce. He & Nando De Colo combined for 25.5PPG, which is 1/3 of the team's total. 15 most used Fener's lineups included Vesely & De Colo or one of them. That's a huge adjustment for Djordjevic. More in our latest podcast:https://t.co/y9r0ZYOBTH

— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) January 4, 2022

Two of Fenerbahce’s best players will miss Tuesday’s game – Nando De Colo and Jan Vesely. Both got injured during the game with ASVEL Lyon on December 23, which the Turks ended up losing 84-82.

Fener hasn’t played a single EuroLeague game since, but we did see the Yellow-Navy Blues play two games in the Turkish Super Lig. The more recent of those saw Fener losing to Darussafaka at home. Despite entering the game as a 7.5-point favorite, Fener ended up losing 79-61.

Bayern Munich isn’t a great team, as evident from its EuroLeague record, which is 7-10 ahead of Round 20. Still, Bayern isn’t as bad as its next opponent, Zalgiris Kaunas.

The Lithuanian team has the worst record in the competition, with just three wins after 16 games played. Further, Zalgiris is still without a win on the road, with a 0-8 record in away games.

This is something Bayern will be looking to take advantage of this Tuesday. Beating the EuroLeague’s biggest underdog could mean moving a few spots up in the rankings. In turn, it would bring Bayern one step closer to the playoffs.

Still, the #1 motivation for Bayern to win this game is to put an end to the three-game losing streak that started in mid-December.

December 22, 2021 was when we last saw Barça win a game. Since then, the Spanish heavyweight lost two straight games, one in the EuroLeague (against Baskonia) and one in the Spanish ACB League (against Manresa).

The last time was saw Barcelona cover the spread was on December 10. That’s when Barça defeated its arch-rival Real Madrid by 13 points. So, what’s been going on with Barcelona since?

The reason behind Barça’s not-too-great performances over the last couple of weeks is that this team had some serious problems with injuries/COVID cases.

Nick Calathes, their passing maestro picked up a foot injury a few weeks ago, then tested positive for the coronavirus. Barça’s captain Pierre Oriola tested positive the same day. The same fate befell Kyle Kuric, but the good news is that all of them have been cleared.

Further, Cory Higgins and Sergi Martinez have also returned after being out for a couple of weeks due to fitness concerns. Now that Barcelona’s roster is almost 100% injury-free, the Spaniards no longer have to rely on Nikola Mirotic-only.

#EuroLeague MVP of a Month awards:

?? Nikola Mirotic: 7 times
?? Nando De Colo: 3
?? Vassilis Spanoulis: 3
?? Ante Tomic: 3
?? Jan Vesely: 3
?? Juan Carlos Navarro: 3

14 players won it twice.
62 players won it once. https://t.co/ByAgxBnSdb

— Darius Garuolis (@DariusGaruolis) January 3, 2022

Speaking of Mirotic, the power forward was nothing short of sensational in December, scooping the MVP award for December. It was his seventh MVP of the Month award in the EuroLeague, which is more than any other player has ever done in this competition.

With Mirotic playing at such a high level and his teammates back at 100% fitness, it would be a major surprise if Barcelona didn’t continue its EuroLeague dominance. Beating Olimpia Milano isn’t going to be easy, but if there’s a team that can do it, it’s Barça.

There you have it, my top betting picks for the first three EuroLeague games of 2022. I took the betting odds from 888sport, an online betting site famous for giving awesome prices on EuroLeague matches.