5 overtimes, a crazy half court shot and unpredicted leader of the standings. Results of the wildest week of the season

The closer the New Year is, the more magic is around.

Avtodor takes the lead in the season after defeating Zenit

The Game of the Week took place in St. Petersburg: Zenit, which was 3rd, hosted Avtodor, which was at the 2nd place. Zenit was considered the favorite, but approached this game with big losses in the lineup: there were no two Jordans in the roster for the game – Mickey and Loyd.

Avtodor also had an advantage in freshness – Emil Rajkovic’s team spent a week preparing for a trip to St. Petersburg, while Zenit held 2 road games in the Euroleague.

And there is nothing surprising in the fact that the Saratov team that started the Game of the Week more cheerfully: Grant Jerrett hit the 3-point shot, Avtodor scored 30 points in 10 minutes and won the opening quarter by 9 points.

Zenit needed to improve their defensive actions, and the St. Petersburg team coped with this before the halftime: they let the opponents score 2 times less in the 2nd quarter than in the 1st…

But at the same time, Zenit trailed even more – Avtodor’s lead became double-digit at the end of 20 minutes. And when it seemed that the St. Petersburg team had adjusted their offense in the 3rd quarter, Pavel Sergeev arranged a real performance. Avtodor guard scored 12 points and at the same time worked out in defense, letting opponents to turnovers and fouls.

Zenit simply had no strength left to come back in the 4th quarter after a difficult Euroleague week. Avtodor did not let the St. Petersburg players pull the game into a tense ending and even allowed to relax before the final buzzer:

This win was the 7th in a row for Avtodor. But, more importantly, for at least 1 week the Saratov team took the lead in the standings, and in UNICS loss to Zenit on Sunday, Avtodor will start the New Year in 1st place. Of course, the Saratov team could not help but celebrate this win with the fans who came to support the team in St.Petersburg:

Grant Jerrett became the most valuable Avtodor player – the bigman has to rebound 1 time to a double-double:

But it is impossible not to point out the Russian duo Sergeev – Kvitkovskikh actions. Pavel had a phenomenal 3rd quarter, and Anton worked on both sides of the floor throughout the game, eventually turning out to be one of the most effective in the Saratov team.

Fact of the game: Zenit, played at home, having won 5 consecutive games with a 15 points lead or more, never managed to get ahead. Avtodor beat Zenit for the 1st time since December 2018.

PARMA and Astana played the longest game in the United League history

55 minutes – that’s how long PARMA and Astana decided the winner in Sunday’s game in Perm.

However, PARMA could not even bring the matter to the 1st overtime. During the game, the Perm team broke away by 11 points and entered the end as leaders.

Jaylen Barford had other plans and did not allow PARMA to win easily – the guard found an opportunity to shoot and turned the game into overtime with a long-range shot:

By the way, for a long time Barford was the most resultative player of the game. And it was he who again drawed the score in the 1st overtime, giving the fans the 2nd OT. But the excessive load on the body – more than 45 minutes of playing time – felt: in the 2nd OT, Barford began to cramp on his legs, and he was forced to leave the court.

But even without Barford, Astana could have won in the second 5 minutes – 3 seconds before the end it had a 3-point advantage. It was almost impossible for PARMA to escape without a miracle, and Jeremiah Hill performed this miracle:

This extra-long shot became historic – for the first time in the history of the United League, 3 overtimes were played in one game!

At the end of 55 minutes of the game, the winner was still determined – PARMA took the win, extending the unsuccessful series of Astana to 5 losses in a row. The hero of the game became Jeremiah Hill: he showed his best basketball in 3 seasons in the United League, scoring 32 points and making 4 rebounds and 3 blocks. Interestingly, Hill played his most resultative game in the League against the former team where he played from 2019 to 2021.

Astana point guard Anthony Hickey became the first player in the history of the VTB United League to spend more than 50 minutes on the floor. Hickey has 51 minutes and 41 seconds of playing time. The entire Kazakh team also set a record, attempting 94 shots. There has never been such a result before in the VTB United League history.

2 overtimes in Nizhny Novgorod: NN has the top 3 performance in the club’s history, Loko is one step away from a defensive anti-record

One of the main news of the week was Evgeny Pashutin resignation. The reason for parting the club management called a weak game in defense – the Krasnodar team never let opponents score less than 80 points during the season and were in last place in the defensive rating of the League.

The team was led by Pashutin’s assistant Branko Maksimovic, who brought Loko to the game with Nizhny Novgorod in 2 days. And in the 1st half of the game, Loko players acted more confidently in defense: they led the score, allowed NN to score only 40 points. And in the course of the second half, they made a 10 point run:

But Nizhny Novgorod, who played without Anton Astapkovich, managed to return and put the game first into the 1st overtime, and then into the 2nd. Both times, Loko rookie Quinn Cook tried to win the game, but two-time NBA champion’s shots missed.

And the ending of the second 5-minute turned into a real thriller with young Russians in the main role – Zakhar Vedishchev and Anton Kardanakhishvili. And, of course, do not forget about Rolands Freimanis – the only legionnaire of Nizhny Novgorod in this game was marked by key blocks, rebounds and free-throws:

And another Russian, Sergey Toropov, played the game of his life: he scored a career-high 22 points and became the 2nd most effective player of Nizhny Novgorod in the game.

For Nizhny 108 points scored is the third result for the entire time of performance in the League. And Loko, by the way, let the rivals score 108 or more just once in history – on December 6, 2014, Lokomotiv lost to Enisey at home – 86:109.

Lundberg arranges a performance in Poland, CSKA overtakes Zenit

Against the background of the games described above, the game between Zielona Gora and CSKA in Poland turned out to be not so bright. The Army team came to this game motivated, worked in defense to the maximum and took home a well-deserved win.

Dimitris Itoudis also spoke about the right attitude at a press conference after the game: “We took the game seriously, dominated from the first to the last minute. The main thing is that we defended very well, forced the opponent to make 20 turnovers and scored easy points.”

Iffe Lundberg played his first game in Poland after joining CSKA. He also became the most valuable player of the game, scoring 18 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists against the former team:

CSKA returned to the 3rd PLACE, pushing Zenit to the 4th place.

Enisey is in the playoff zone

The Krasnoyarsk team pleased its fans with its first home win, defeating Tsmoki-Minsk in Arena Sever. After that, Drazen Anzulovic’s team rose to the 8th place, knocking Kalev out of the playoff zone.

But this game can hardly be called an easy walk for Enisey – Tsmoki came back after 17 points difference and almost made a sensation. The Krasnoyarsk team was saved by Ware – Lemarduo, who scored 43 points out of 86 team points.

But the calendar year is not over for Enisey: they will play 2 more games in a week – against PARMA on Thursday and against CSKA on Sunday.

All-Star Game Voting

Last week, the League launched a vote among fans for the 2022 All-Star Game, which will be held in Moscow on February 20. According to the results of the first week, Andrey Vorontsevich became the most popular Russian player, and Mario Hezonja is the leader among foreigners. Both play for UNICS.

Choose the players for the All-Star Game 2022!

Team of the Week

Jeremiah Hill saved PARMA from loss in the 2nd OT with an extra-long shot from the center of the court.
Iffe Lundberg effectively returned to Zielona Goru and led CSKA to the 6th win of the season.
Rolands Freimanis and Sergey Toropov were the best players of Nizhny Novgorod in the two-overtime game with Loko.
Grant Jerrett had a key influence on Avtodor’s win over Zenit on the road.

Top-10 Plays of the Week

Standings