This article is part of our EuroLeague Primer series.
PREGAME UPDATES
- Barcelona's Victor Claver will not play Thursday due to a foot injury.
- Efes' Tolga Gecim will miss another Round.
- Panathinaikos' Lefteris Bochoridis will remain sidelined.
- Barcelona's Artem Pustovyi has not seen any EuroLeague action this season and will remain unavailable for Round 4.
THE SLATE
Anadolu Efes Istanbul at 
Zalgiris Kaunas
Key Injuries: Shane Larkin (IST), Patricio Garino (ZAL)
Best Bets for Success: Vasilije Micic's price on DraftKings remains sky-high, but it's actually a tad lower than it was Tuesday despite him putting up a double-double. It will be tough for Micic to return significant value in contests on that website, particularly against a Zalgiris defense that has not allowed an opponent to top 70 points to date. However, with few players to to choose from Thursday his upside is as important as his value, and his price reflects the fact he's the favorite to put up the most DraftKings points of anyone on the slate. While Krunoslav Simon came off the bench in Round 3 he still had a productive outing, scoring in double figures, making a couple threes and notching at least two tallies in three other categories. His DraftKings price is soaring -- thanks mainly to the 42 points he put up on that website in Round 2 -- but his role is secure with Larkin out and he still offers some of the best value at his per-game averages. If you're passing on anyone that costs five digits, Marius Grigonis is a worthy headliner. He struggled a bit in Round 3, but that helped keep his price in check, and he averaged 30 points on DrafKings over the first two Rounds.
DFS Darlings: Joffrey Lauvergne returned to action Tuesday after a missing a game due to COVID-19, and he did not skip a beat, playing as many minutes as he did in Round 1 and falling two rebounds shy of a double-double. He will be highly-owned on DraftKings, but at just $6,500 he should be. This game is a little light on value plays, but 19-year-old Rokas Jokubaitis has seemingly secured a spot in Zalgiris' rotation and has already topped the 20-point mark twice on DraftKings, so he is worthy of consideration.
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens at 
FC Barcelona
Key Injuries: Nikola Mirotic (BAR), Lefteris Bochoridis (PAN)
Best Bets for Success: Another player capable of anchoring DraftKings lineups at under $10,000 is Ioannis Papapetrou, who has played all but nine minutes this season and is getting up 14.5 field-goal attempts per game. At just $9,100 on DraftKings, he has returned the most value of the high-end options thus far. While Nick Calathes has not had a monster game just yet, this seems like a spot for him to have one. He is coming off his most productive outing and, having averaged 13.3 points, and 4.9 rebounds, 9.1 assists last season, has as much upside as anyone in the league when he's at his best. He spent eight seasons with Panathinaikos before joining Barcelona in the offseason, so he should have extra motivation to put on a show facing his former team for the first time.
DFS Darlings: Along with Lauvergne, the best value plays in Thursday's contests are Marcus Foster and Rolands Smits. They both carry some risk without much of a track record in the EuroLeague, but Foster has the most value of anyone on the slate, even though he will run you almost $2,000 more on DraftKings than he did last time Panathinaikos took the court. Smits' price has jumped significantly, but he is coming off the best game of his career and should again play a key role Thursday with Mirotic still sidelined. Even at his current price he would have returned almost 5x value in Round 3. One other player to consider is Howard Sant-Roos, who was eased back into action last week but still had a solid outing. He brings a nice blend of skills to the table, and if he can hit double figures in the points column he will have a chance to provide big value just like Smits did earlier this week.
