Round 4 of the EuroLeague features an all-French derby between Paris and Lyon-based ASVEL. Both are currently near the bottom of the standings, in 16th and 17th place.
Paris
Paris sit lower because of their slightly worse points difference (-28 compared with -26). However, the club from the capital secured their first win of this EuroLeague season in the last round, beating Zalgiris Vilnius 82:78 in a hard-fought home game. In their first home game, which ended in defeat, Paris scored almost as many points — 79 against Partizan (79:92). Can ASVEL prevent the hosts from scoring so freely?
ASVEL
ASVEL failed to do so in the previous two rounds. Their opponents both exceeded 100 points: Panathinaikos won 102:79 and Valencia 105:92. They only managed to prevent that in their home game, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 84:74. With the second-highest turnover figure (16.0), they will struggle to stop any offence, even an average one.
Paris vs ASVEL Prediction
Given ASVEL's defensive weakness and Paris' five consecutive head-to-head wins across all competitions at the Porte de la Chapelle Arena, we are backing the hosts with a -5.5-point handicap, which they comfortably covered in each of those games.
