One-sided motivation ...
Malaga hosts Efes in the context of the 22nd game of the Euroleague. The Spaniards with a record (8-13) are 3 wins behind the 8th place that leads to the playoffs of the tournament. Although they started the season very badly, they gradually improved and now have hopes of entering the knockouts. It may have lost 6 of its last 5 games in the tournament, but if we ignore the game with Milan where they were tragic defensively and conceded 101 points and essentially gave up the game towards the end, they lost the other 4 in the basket (Valencia, Zalkiris, Baskonia and Khimki). With 9 games left, the margins have narrowed a lot and the team is forced to see every game as a final from now on if it wants to exhaust its chances of eight and could not find a better opponent to start its counterattack. .
Efes, although it defeated Valencia, which was decimated by injuries in the last one in Turkey, remains stuck at the bottom of the standings with a record (6-15). He has no motivation anymore after he lost the train in the playoffs early, since at no point in the season did he manage to stand up to the tournament and just made some victories flashes. Especially away from home, its presence is very poor, as it could not even look competitive in most games. The appeal is that he lost the last 5 without any resistance with double-digit differences.
Today, Malaga will enter with all seriousness from the beginning, so that they try to clear the match early and not give rights, since they saw their last games lost in the end. On the other hand, Efes' recent appearances in away games, where he enters very loosely since he has run out of goals and stays behind with big differences from early on, push me to choose the victory in Malaga from the half time.
Malaga - Effects 1/1 HT / FT (2.05) Stoiximan