By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
The ten-time record champions’ gaping holes away from home became abundantly clear throughout the back end of January and early February as they were beaten in three straight contests away from the Spanish capital. First, it was lowly Paris, then Panathinaikos, and finally middling Dubai. A 77-73 victory in Serbia against Partizan Belgrade seemingly stopped the rot, but now Zalgiris has piled on further misery for the weary giants.
Real Madrid’s Road Troubles
Mario Hezonja had a chance to win it for Real, launching one across the court after Sylvain Francisco’s ice-cold free throws gave the hosts the lead with just 3.9 seconds remaining. However, the Serbian’s effort would skip back off the backboard and into Lithuanian hands, consigning Real to their fourth defeat in five road games.
Those three straight losses a month ago had Sergio Scariolo, the Spaniard appointed to restore Madrid’s throne in July 2025 after Chus Mateo’s messy exit, deflecting postgame questions. His side would then rattle off five straight wins, four of them coming on home turf with that Partisan triumph sandwiched in the middle. Scariolo exhaled. His agents smiled. Then Kaunas happened. Edy Tavares finished with a double-double that deserved a winning locker room. He didn’t get one.
Here’s where this gets interesting. The odds market has already passed its verdict. Los Blancos have drifted further in the betting charts as the bookies look to nail down their favorites as the playoffs draw ever closer. But who do they make the frontrunners for glory? Let’s take a look.
Olympiacos
Twenty-two wins, eleven losses, second in the standings — and a +228 point differential that leads the league by a country mile. It’s no surprise that online betting sites make Olympiacos the clear frontrunners to claim the Euroleague crown this term. The latest Bovada basketball odds currently position the Greek giants as the 4.40 frontrunners, and considering the wins they have reeled off in recent weeks, we shouldn’t be surprised.
That 104-66 Partizan massacre in January? A lesson in what happens when Nikola Milutinov controls the paint and a Bulgarian forward named Sasha Vezenkov decides to remind everyone why his CSKA exile was a mistake. The latter of that duo is averaging 18.3 points and 8.1 rebounds a night. He’s won MVP of the Round three times, the most of anybody this season.
Georgios Bartzokas has built the league’s most suffocating defensive ecosystem around him — Milutinov as the immovable paint anchor, Thomas Walkup and Nigel Williams-Goss rotating behind him, and Tyler Dorsey (17.1 PPG) providing the kind of second-star offensive punch that forces defenses to choose their poison. Their 96-86 dismantling of Madrid in Round 22 was a statement of superiority — the kind of offensive efficiency that turns play-in survivors into ghosts in a five-game playoff series.
Three championships — 1997, 2012, 2013 — and a Final Four semi last season. Bartzokas has never won the whole thing as head coach. That haunts him. It should haunt bettors, too, because the favorites are taking no prisoners this term.
Fenerbahçe
The defending champions are 23-9, have already clinched a playoff spot, and are sitting comfortably atop the standings with the kind of quiet confidence that only comes from having done this before. 2025 champs. 2023 champs. 2017 champs. Fenerbahçe have reloaded once again, and this season’s ammunition is formidable.
Wade Baldwin ran the show in Week 19’s MVP performance, which announced him as the genuine article. Talon Horton-Tucker brings an athleticism that simply doesn’t compute for European-trained defenses — the kind of explosive first step that makes a pick-and-roll nightmare feel like a hostage situation. Bonzie Colson is the glue guy every championship team needs but rarely gets this right: physical, efficient, never a liability. The three-and-D wing depth is real.
Their 74-68 road win at Hapoel in Round 13 — hostile environment, packed house, first-year EuroLeague crowd with nothing to lose — was pure killer instinct. That’s what separates contenders from pretenders. Fener went to Tel Aviv and took the result anyway against this season’s surprise package. Yes, Olympiacos beat them convincingly in Round 31. Yes, they have wobbled in their last five. But top seed, home court, back-to-back ambition — don’t bet against an organization with this much institutional will. 4.50 odds say they get it done again.
Panathinaikos
This is where it gets ugly. The 2024 EuroLeague champions — Ergin Ataman’s improbable Athens miracle, huge average attendance at OAKA, the loudest arena in Europe on a good night — are sitting eighth overall at 18-14, staring at the play-in gauntlet like it’s a loaded gun. A four-game skid earlier this season had the green faithful openly questioning whether Ataman had lost the dressing room.
Then Kendrick Nunn happened. Again. The reigning EuroLeague MVP erupted in the fourth quarter against Crvena Zvezda in Week 32 — held them to 12 points in the final period, turned a deficit into an 82-74 win, and reminded everyone why this franchise still believes. Nunn’s clutch gene is a force of nature. TJ Shorts is an elite point guard who makes the whole organism function. The problem is that Richaun Holmes has been a ghost inside, the frontcourt inconsistency is real, and play-in basketball at 5.00 odds is razor-thin when one cold Nunn night sends you home on the wrong side of history.
Can the 2024 champions navigate the play-in bloodbath and reach the finals on home turf in the Greek capital? Absolutely. Are they the same team that dismantled everything in their path two seasons ago? No.