Заканчивается регулярный сезон и начинаются игры на выбывание. А в них, как известно, на первый план выходит оборона своего кольца. Кто же из баскетболистов Единой Лиги лучше всего в этом сезоне проявил себя в этом компоненте и претендует на звание «Мистер Замок»? The regular season ends and the play-offs come closer. And in them, as you know, the defense of your rim comes to the fore. Who among the United League basketball players this season showed themselves best in this component and claims the title of “Mr. Lock”?
Mateusz Ponitka, Zenit
Player stats: 19 games, 3,7 rebounds, 1,2 steals, 10,6 efficiency in 21,5 minutes
This season, Xavier Pascual’s squad is the winner of the regular season and the best defensive team of the season. This, in principle, says it all. Lacking the most impressive offense in the League (Zenit is inferior in this indicator even to Avtodor, which did not even make the playoffs), Petrograd only five times in the season allowed the opponent to overstep the mark of 80 points scored. They conceded more than 90 points only once – from Lokomotiv-Kuban. “Hundred” were not allowed even once.
Mateusz Ponitka was chosen as Zenit captain for the second year of playing for the St. Petersburg club. And for good reason. Already in his debut year in the League (as part of Loko Krasnodar), the Pole was noted for his crazy dedication and ability, despite rather modest dimensions, to defend himself in any position – with the same zeal biting into both tiny playmakers and 120-kilogram “big”. The Russian National team felt this in full in the 2019 World Cup game, which was won by the Poles, and Ponitka became one of the key figures of the meeting (14 points, 9 rebounds and impeccable defense).
This season, Ponitka has repeatedly confirmed his class: he is in the top 3 of Zenit in terms of the total number of minutes on the floor, and the fives with his participation are invariably leading in terms of the team’s plus-minus indicator.
Best game: against UNICS (81:64)
Zenit approached the game with Kazan with 6 consecutive victories at the start of the championship. The fight turned out to be very difficult for Xavi Pascual’s charges – during the meeting Zenit was losing with a catastrophic lag of -19. It was here that the captain of the Petersburg showed himself. Ponitka took the game into his own hands, scoring 17 of his team’s 18 points in a row. In defense, Zenit literally ate Kazan’s offense, that managed to score only 24 points in the second half. And Ponitka finished the game with outstanding performance – in 24 minutes on the floor, he scored 23 points without a single miss (7 out of 7 from the field, 7 out of 7 from the free throw line), provoked the opponent to fouls 9 times, made 4 steals and earned 28 efficiency points
Reggie Lynch, Lokomotiv-Kuban
Player’s stats: 13 games, 9,4 points, 4,7 rebounds, 1,0 assists, 2,2 blocks (№1 in the League), 13,7 efficiency points in 20,7 minutes
Evgeny Pashutin seriously reformatted the game of Lokomotiv-Kuban – a team that we have been accustomed to seeing as a team focused on the defense since the days of Georgios Bartzokas. This season Loko is the second after CSKA in terms of average performance. But in terms of defense, the Kuban team is not even in the top five. Nevertheless, if necessary, Loko can always show top defense, and largely thanks to its center Reggie Lynch.
Lynch came to Krasnodar primarily to expand the rotation of the “bigs” and at first did not receive a large number of game minutes. The situation changed markedly when the main center and – in the first months – MVP contender Alan Williams dropped out before the end of the season. This happened at the end of November. And already in December, Lynch, who had not always been included in the list before, became one of the key players for the team and helped Loko survive the loss of the leader rather painlessly. The center height of 208 centimeters since his university days was famous for his ability to make a powerful block-shot, which was also proved by his debut in the United League – in the 2018/19 season Lynch played for Kalev and managed to become the season leader in block-shots, spending on the court less than 15 minutes per game! (Note that Kalev became the first professional club in his career).
Lynch is likely to repeat that achievement this year – topping the top blocking players with 2.15 blocks per game and 20 minutes averaged on the court. In the second half of the season, the center got a new strong rival – Drew Gordon, who became the main “big” of the Kuban team. But, despite this, Evgeny Pashutin can always count on a dynamic and bouncing center, if you need to tightly cover the paint.
Best game: against Zenit (96:81)
In December, Lokomotiv-Kuban met the future winner of the regular season, Zenit, who at that time had gained 7 victories in a row, and left no chances for the Petersburg (96:81). It was Lynch who played a key role here – in the last quarter he scored 8 points without giving Zenit an opportunity to chase, repeated the season-high in block shots (6) and finished the game with a score of +33.
Evgenii Baburin, Nizhny Novgorod
Player’s stats: 19 games, 9,8 points, 3,2 rebounds, 2,8 assists, 1,2 steals, 11,3 efficiency, 32,4 minutes (№4 in the League)
If you conduct a poll among the basketball players of the United League “Who is the most difficult for you to play against in offense” – Evgenii Baburin must definitely get into the top three. Baburin is perhaps the best in the League who knows how to “get under the skin” of the enemy, punishing him for the slightest mistake. A veteran of Russian basketball who started at Nizhny, even when it was called the NBA, Baburin has long established himself as one of the best head-to-head defenders in the United League. True, in Lokomotiv, when Kuban was headed by the protective guru Sasha Obradovich, Evgeny’s career did not work out (in fairness, it was almost impossible to take away playing time from the peak Dmitry Kulagin).
Everything changed when the guard returned to his native Nizhny Novgorod – Zoran Lukic, who knew him well, completely trusted the veteran, and he did not disappoint. This season for Baburin turns out to be truly stellar. At 33, Nizhny’s captain demonstrates the best stats in his career. Interestingly, of all the players on this list, Baburin is the first in terms of performance – besides the fact that he burns the floor in his own half, Evgeny is gaining almost 10 points on average in offense. On the court he spends 32.2 minutes, in some games he practically does not rest. All this directly affects the results of the club – Nizhny, which has experienced staff difficulties since the start of the season, has broken into the top five teams of the United League and reached the Final Eight of the Champions League. And Baburin himself took part in the All-Star Game in 2021 for the first time in his career.
Best game: against Astana (79:69)
In the December game against Kazakhstan, Nizhny played without center Alexandre Gavrilovich, which was used by Astana, which seized the initiative. Evgeny Baburin initiated a turning point in the course of the game – as always, he lived his whole life on the floor (39 minutes), scored 15 points, 22 efficiency points, and in defense he closed the guards of Kazakhstan tightly, making 4 interceptions. By the way, this was his second game in a row with 4 steals – before that, PARMA suffered from his tenacious hands.
John Brown III, UNICS
Player’s stats: 22 games, 8,4 points, 5,1 rebounds, 1,6 assists, 2,2 steals (№1 in the League), 12,5 efficiency in 24,6 minutes
For the fourth season in a row, Dimitrios Priftis has been conducting an impressive experiment in Kazan to create one of the most impregnable defensive lines in the United League. This year has turned out to be perhaps the most significant for the Greek coach and his players: UNICS is fighting for the second place in the United League, reached the final of the EuroCup and won the right to participate in the Euroleague of the 2021/22 season. And one of the main roles in the successes of Kazan is played by almost the most colorful basketball player of the League – debutant John Brown III, who spends his first season in the United League and may already become the second in a row (after Maurice N’Dur) Kazan “Mister Lock”.
In the offseason, the loudest signing of Kazan was considered Isaiah Canaan, who fully justifies the advances (he is the most high-scoring UNICS player). However, John Brown very quickly made it clear who is the key link in Priftis’ strict defensive formations. On the floor, Brown wears glasses, but this should not give illusion to his opponents – from the very first seconds, Brown can hit them with a real hurricane, demonstrating his tenacity and incredibly fast hands. Kazan leads the League by a huge margin both in average and in the total number of steals (8.45 per game against 7.29 for Zenit, which is second). And the main merit in this belongs to Brown with his 2.18 steals per game – his main pursuer Janari Joesaar makes only 1.5 per game. Brown’s tenacious hands literally pull the ball to him – despite his 203 centimeters, he is also the leader in the team in terms of the average number of rebounds (5.1), and is in the top 16 of the League by this indicator, ahead of even the “profile” centers of Arturas Gudaitis and Reggie Lynch. Underestimating Brown’s offensive skills also does not lead to anything good: Virtus can tell a lot about it, to which Brown scored 20 points in the decisive game of the EuroCup semifinals – for which he was named MVP of the week.
Best game: against Khimki (93:87)
Kazan started 2021 with a fantastic streak of 10 victories in a row. But already in January, a game took place in which UNICS was teetering on the brink of defeat – against Khimki in the Moscow Region BCMO, where UNICS had not won for three years. The game turned out to be incredibly tenacious – just mention that the leader changed 19 times! Brown held this meeting with incredible energy, giving a powerful impetus to the guests’ defense and literally exhausting his opponents. And at the last minute of the game, with a powerful dunk, as if emphasizing that he was not at all tired, Brown finally deprived the Khimki team of any hope of a first victory under the leadership of Andrey Maltsev.
Joel Bolomboy, CSKA
Player’s stats: 18 games, 9,6 points, 4,3 rebounds, 1,06 blocks (№4 in the League), 11,6 efficiency in 21,1 minutes
Joel Bolomboy is wearing his third season in the red and blue colors and is showing clear progress in almost all game components. This is not so noticeable if you look exclusively at the dry numbers: as usual, Dimitris Itoudis relies on the widest possible rotation, and therefore there is not a single basketball player in CSKA who spends more than 25 minutes on the floor on average per game. As in the case with Loko and Reggie Lynch, Bolomboy got a serious increase in game minutes only after CSKA lost Nikola Milutinov, who had a brilliant start to the championship, by the end of the season.
As you know, Itoudis, with his strictest requirements for defensive play, does not particularly favor players who “lollygag” in their own half. Bolomboy, perhaps, never once gave his mentor to doubt the defensive dedication – even in those games where not everything works out in offense. One of the best athletes in the League can cover any problematic spot in the defense, quickly moves within the perimeter, insures the guards, participating in double team. And thanks to speed and long arms, the center is always ready to “steal” the ball from a gaping opponent below: for example, in the game against Avtodor, he added two more interceptions to the three block-shots assigned by the status.
In March, Bolomboy became another CSKA “big”, who ended up in the infirmary for a long time. This immediately affected the team’s results: the army team lost to Zenit, failing to win the regular season for the first time since 2014, and then lost the rematch to Lokomotiv-Kuban, allowing more than 100 points for the second time this season.
Best game: against Lokomotiv-Kuban, 94:80
But it was in the first meeting of these teams in the season that Bolomboy played one of his most impressive games. The first half was played in an absolutely equal fight, Alan Williams shone with Loko (18 + 14 rebounds at the end of the game), and the teams approached the big break with the score 48:48. CSKA started the third quarter with a snatch 10:0 – Bolomboy did not score points, but was one of the most active players on the floor, tormenting the Kuban under the shields (an angry Williams even got an unsportsmanlike foul). Bolomboy finished the game with 7 points, 9 rebounds, 5 of them at offense, 6 block-shots (a record of the season, which Reggie Lynch was later able to repeat) and a plus or minus indicator of +21.
