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30 things to look out for in Wednesday's games

 

MIES (Switzerland) - As many as four teams can lock up a spot in the Play-Ins on Wednesday and consequently enter the final stretch of the Regular Season focused only on chasing first place in their respective groups.

Here are 30 things you need to know ahead of the five Wednesday games:

PAOK mateco (2-1) v SL Benfica (1-2)

Group G - 18:30 CET - Thessaloniki, Greece


The BCL's leading scorer, Ivan Almeida, scored a BCL career-high 28 points in the reverse fixture

● If PAOK win this game and Hapoel Jerusalem defeat Galatasaray EKMAS on Thursday, the Greek team will be assured of a top-three finish in Group G and would therefore secure, at the very least, a spot in the Play-Ins.

● PAOK, who are coming off a 79-77 win against Hapoel Jerusalem, haven’t won consecutive BCL games since October-November 2021, when they won two in a row. PAOK won their two most recent BCL games at home, still need three more to tie their longest win streak - five home wins in a row between October 2018 and January 2019.

● Benfica have a 1-5 record in their last six BCL games and their lone win was precisely against PAOK in the reverse fixture (94-72). Only one of Benfica’s 11 BCL games was decided by a single-digit margin.

● PAOK made 10 or more three-pointers in each of their last five home games in the BCL. The Greek team had made 10+ three-pointers in only three of their previous 11 home games. However, the only game this season in which PAOK didn't hit double digits in three-pointers made was the reverse fixture in Lisbon, when they made 8 triples.

● The only PAOK player to have scored 15 or more points in multiple BCL games this season is Elvar Fridriksson, who had 19 against Galatasaray EKMAS and 16 against Benfica in Lisbon.

● Kendall Smith scored 16 points in his BCL debut with PAOK (the 79-77 win over Hapoel Jerusalem) which is his BCL career high. Smith played three BCL games with ERA Nymburk in the 2017-18 season.

● Benfica's Ivan Almeida scored a BCL career-high 28 points in the reverse fixture. Almeida is leading the BCL in scoring this season, averaging 20.7 points per game.


Bursaspor Info Yatirim (1-2) v Hapoel Holon (2-1)

Group F - 19:00 CET - Laktasi, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Is Metin Turen Hapoel Holon's nemesis? The former Turkish international has never lost against Holon

● Bursaspor are coming off their first ever win in the BCL (92-82 v Telekom Baskets Bonn) after losing their first two in the competition. The the team that was leading at half-time ended up winning the game in all three of Bursaspor's BCL encounters so far, and all three were decided by double-digit point margins.

● Holon have a 2-6 record in their last eight road games in the BCL (this stretches back to the tail end of last season). Holon have a 0-4 record in their last four BCL Regular season games against Turkish teams on the road, and gave up 85+ points in each of those four games.

● Holon are currently leading the league in three-point field goal percentage, as they convert 45.8 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. This is also Holon's highest three-point shooting percentage in their history in the BCL.

● Bursaspor's Metin Turen has played four games against Holon and won all four times. No other BCL player has a better win record against the Israeli team. The Turkish big man averaged 4.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in those four encounters.

● Holon's Amine Noua has scored 10+ points in each of his three BCL games this season, after reaching double digits in only two of his first 18 BCL games, with ASVEL. Noua also pulled down exactly 8 rebounds in each of his last two games, as many games as in his first 19 BCL appearances.


JDA Bourgogne Dijon (3-0) v BK Opava (0-3)

Group B - 20:00 CET - Dijon, France


Dijon head coach Nenad Markovic is aiming to move up to third place in most BCL career wins

● If Dijon win this game they are assured of a top-three finish in the group and thus a spot in the Play-Ins, at the very least. If Dijon win this game and Promitheas beat Rytas in the other game, the French team cannot finish lower than second in Group B.

● If Dijon win they will tie their longest winning run in competition history (in a single season), the 4-game win streak they put together between October-November 2019.

● Opava are still looking for their first road win in the BCL, having lost their previous 9 road games by an average of 37 points. The Czech champions have historically given up 94.5 points per BCL game, as one of only two teams in BCL history to allow 90+ points per game. The other was Polski Torun, who gave up 96.1 points per game.

● Dijon head coach Nenad Markovic is tied with Promitheas Patras head coach Ilias Papatheodorou for fourth place on the list of coaches with the most all-time wins in the BCL. Markovic and Papatheodorou have 39 wins each, while Txus Vidorreta leads with 83, Dario Gjergja has 41 and John Patrick 40.

● Dijon's David Holston has 398 assists BCL career assists, so he is two shy of becoming only the second player in BCL history to reach the 400+ assists mark. Marcelinho Huertas is in the lead with 506 BCL career assists. Holston is averaging 6.7 assists per game in his last six BCL games at home.

● Jakub Sirina, who led all Opava scorers against Rytas Vilnius with 14 points, has scored 14+ points in 4 of his 15 BCL games, but never in consecutive encounters.

Rytas Vilnius (1-2) v Promitheas Patras (2-1)

Group B - 20:15 CET - Vilnius, Lithuania

Anthony Cowan has elevated the art of scoring off the bench to new heights

● If Promitheas win this game they are assured of a top-three finish in the group and would therefore secure, at the very least, a spot in the Play-Ins.

● Rytas have won six of their last seven games at home in the BCL, including the only one so far this season (99-63 over Opava). The Vilnius side have scored 95+ points in three of their last four BCL games
at home, after never scoring that many in their previous 14 home games.

● Promitheas lost their only road game in the BCL so far this season (88-80 at JDA Dijon) after winning their two games at home, including the reverse fixture against Rytas (78-76). Promitheas have indeed lost the last four BCL games they played on the road (including their three road games in the 2018-19 season).

● Rytas's Martynas Echodas has scored 10+ points in nine of his ten BCL games at home, including the last six. He is also averaging 6.2 rebounds per game at home.

● Promitheas's Anthony Cowan is the only player to have scored 15+
points off the bench in each of the first three gamedays this season. Cowan scored a BCL career-high 22 points in a road game, as he had 22 points against JDA Dijon on Gameday 3.

● Promitheas head coach Ilias Papatheodorou has 39 BCL career wins, two of which at the helm the Patras team. If Promitheas win on Wednesday, he will reach the 40-win milestone in just 67 games in the competition, the second fastest ever after Txus Vidorreta, who got to 40 wins in just 52 games.


Bertram Derthona Tortona (3-0) v Tofas Bursa (1-2)

Group H - 20:30 CET - Tortona, Italy

Zeljko Sakic is looking to cement his status as BCL legend on Wednesday

● If Tortona win this game they are assured of a top-two finish in the group and would therefore secure, at the very least, a spot in the Play-ins.

● If Tortona win they will become only the second Italian club to start their debut BCL campaign on a 4-game win streak after
Virtus Bologna, who won their first seven games in row in the 2018-19 season.

● Tofas have a 2-6 record in their last eight BCL games, but picked up both those wins on the road. Tofas gave up more than 100 points in each of their last two BCL road games (at Igokea and at Murcia), something that had never happened in any of their previous 17 road games.

● Tofas are averaging 43 bench points per game this season, by far their highest ever in the competition. In their previous three BCL campaigns, the Tofas second unit never contributed more than 28 points per game. The Turkish team have already had two games this season scoring 40+ bench points (including the reverse fixture against Tortona, when they had 45), a mark they had only reached in one of their previous 34 BCL games.

● Tortona's Mike Daum has posted one double-double in his BCL career and it was precisely against Tofas in the reverse fixture (15 points, 10 rebounds). The 28-year-old forward has so far shot an excellent 8-of-12 from three-point range in the BCL (66.7 percent).

● Zeljko Sakic has scored 10+ points in each of his last 19 BCL games. If he scores in double digits also on Wednesday, he will become only the second player to have scored 10+ points in 20 consecutive BCL games, alongside DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell.