MIES (Switzerland) - Three more groups lift the curtain on the 2020-21 Basketball Champions League Regular Season on Tuesday October 27th, the first day of action in Week 2, which features four of the most eagerly anticipated  encounters of the first month of the season.

In Group E, Lithuanian powerhouse Rytas Vilnius plays their maiden BCL game against the hard-nosed Greeks of Peristeri, in Group G we have a clash between two top-8 teams last season, Turk Telekom and Hapoel Jerusalem, while all four Group F teams are making their season debut later in the night.

Let's have a closer look at Tuesday's four-game slate.

Rytas Vilnius vs. Peristeri -- Group E, 18:30 CET

• In their last outing before the Tuesday clash, on Sunday, Rytas suffered their first defeat of the season after losing 84-72 to archrivals Zalgiris Kaunas at home in Lithuanian LKL league action. Demetrius Jackson had 18 points in defeat.
  
  
• Meanwhile on Saturday, Peristeri were victorious in their Greek Basket League season opener as they prevailed 84-81 over Kolossos at home, behind a 27-point, 7-rebound showing by big man Loukas Mavrokefalidis.
  
  
• Rytas will be the fourth Lithuanian team to play in the BCL, after Juventus Utena, Neptunas Klaipeda and Lietkabelis. Neptunas are the only Lithuanian team in the competition to have won a game against a team from Greece.
  
  
• Peristeri, who debuted in the competition in 2019-20, lost their last three road games in the BCL after winning three of their first five games on the road in the competition.
  
  
• Peristeri had the stingiest defense last season in two different categories: The Greek team gave up only 7.8 fast-break points and 27.4 points in the paint per game, the fewest among all teams.
  
  
• Arnas Butkevicius of Rytas, who's played in the BCL with Neptunas, averaged 16.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game in his last five games with the Klaipeda team in the BCL. The Lithuanian winger is one of only two players in competition history to have posted a triple-double, when he collected 19 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists against PAOK in November 2017.
  
  
• Jonathan Arledge of Peristeri will suit up for a second club in the BCL, after playing for Ventspils in the 2018-19 season. The American power forward scored at least 10 points in eight of his 13 games with the Latvian team, and had two games with 3 or more blocks.
  
  

Turk Telekom vs. Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem -- Group G, 18:30 CET

• Turk Telekom are coming off an 89-84 road win at Afyon in. Turkish BSL league action on Saturday, behind 28 points from Sam Dekker and an 18-point, 11-rebound double-double display by Kyle Wiltjer.
  
  
• Meanwhile Jerusalem have not seen domestic league action since the summer, since the 2020-21 Israeli Winner League season tips off in November.
  
  
• Jerusalem captain J’Covan Brown is sidelined through injury and will miss at least another month of action. Brown is just 17 points shy of reaching the 700-point mark in the BCL.
  
  
• Of all the teams that were drawn together in 2020-21 Regular Season group, Turk Telekom and Jerusalem are the only ones to have won their respective 2019-20 group and reach the Final 8. (Nymburk and Dijon, who are drawn in Group B, also took part in the Final 8 but the French team were second in their 2019-20 group).
  
  
• Turk Telekom, who debuted in the BCL in 2019-20, won seven of their eight home games, scoring an average of 88.8 points in the last five of those games.
  
  
• Jerusalem faced a Turkish team in the BCL for the first time last year, when they coincided with Bandirma in the Regular Season, and it went pretty well for them since they won both games, both at home and in Turkey.
  
  
• Jerusalem average 87.5 points per game over their two complete campaigns in the BCL, which means they have the most productive offense in competition history among teams that have taken part in more than one season.
  
  
• Turk Telekom's Kyle Wiltjer scored 25 or more points in four BCL games last season, second only to Keith Langford who had five such games in a single season (also in 2019-20).
  
  

RETAbet Bilbao vs. Pinar Karsiyaka -- Group F, 20:00 CET

• Bilbao were not in domestic league action this last weekend. Their most recent Liga Endesa game was on October 11th, and they fell 88-81 at Joventut Badalona.
  
  
• Karsiyaka meanwhile are coming off a 89-78 success over fellow BCL club Darussafaka on Saturday, their fourth win in five Turkish league games, as Sek Henry led the way with 19 points.
  
  
• Tomeu Rigo of Bilbao will miss the entire season, after tearing his ACL last week.
  
  
• Bilbao will be the eighth Spanish side competing in the BCL. No Spanish team has ever lost their first home game in the competition.
  
  
• Karsiyaka are back in the BCL after having taken part in the first two seasons of the competition. The Turkish team won 12 of their last 16 Regular Season games.
  
  
• Bilbao will be the second Spanish team to face Karsiyaka in the BCL. UCAM Murcia played four times against the Turkish side, with each team winning two of those games.
  
  
• Bilbao's Kingsley Moses played for Peristeri last season and he had six BCL games with 10 or more rebounds with the Greek side, second in the league behind Emanuel Terry who had nine such games.
• D.J. Kennedy of Karsiyaka is the club's all-time leading scorer in the BCL, with 309 points. The American guard scored 12 or more points in each of his 16 appearances in the competition and posted five double-doubles in that span.
  
  

Fortitudo Bologna vs. Brose Bamberg -- Group F, 20:30 CET

• Fortitudo are coming off an 82-71 loss at home to Armani Milano on Sunday, in Italian Serie A action, despite a 24-point showing by Pietro Aradori.
  
  
• Bamberg on the other hand were involved in German Cup action on Sunday and they lost 99-75 to Ludwigsburg, with Chase Fieler scoring 21 points in a losing effort.
  
  
• Fortitudo, a storied club which is in the process of restoring its former glory, will be the eighth Italian team in the BCL. Capo d’Orlando are to date the only Italian team to lose their debut home game in the competition.
  
  
• Bamberg will compete for the third consecutive season in the BCL. The German team reached the Final Four in 2018-19 but were not able to make it to the Play-Offs last season.
  
  
• Bamberg won only two of their last nine road games in the BCL, as they didn't manage to score at least 80 points in any of those games. Bamberg had scored 80 or more points in six of their first eight road games in the league.
  
  
• Fortitudo's Adrian Banks, who played for Brindisi last season, averaged 14.8 points per game in his 13 appearances in the BCL. The veteran scored a BCL personal-best 31 points almost exactly a year ago, in Brindisi's first home game which was also against a German team, Telekom Baskets Bonn.
  
  
• Bamberg's Chase Fieler is gearing up for his third BCL campaign, and both of his two previous were with Filou Oostende. He scored in double digits in 14 of his 27 BCL appearances with the Belgian champions, however he is averaging 6.5 points per game against Italian teams.