Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan will host 2 regular season games on Sunday.
Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod) – Samara (Samara)
Time: 14:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, KRK Nagorniy
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: haven’t played before
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: On Thursday, Zoran Lukic team lost to UNICS in the Volga Derby, and now it has another one – with the League newcomer Samara. In the game against Kazan, Pari NN lost two guards – the head coach announced this at a press conference. However, without Khvostov and Strebkov, Nizhny Novgorod remain a force with a long roster and a fairly impressive frontcourt: Jovanovic, Apic and Gankevich are able to take the responsibilities, and Salash and Chadov are also dangerous from the perimeter. Pari NN has already played with Samara in the preseason, and then the teams exchanged wins at home tournaments.
Samara: After the first three rounds, the Samara team have a negative wins and losses balance – 1-2. But with each game, Sergey Bazarevich team looks better and on Wednesday the first win against Enisey at home in overtime happened. Samara next opponent is also not easy, but after the debut win, the team should already feel better. The leaders finally showed what they can do: James Ennis, KC Rivers and Marcos Knight scored 60 points combined in the previous game. In a game in Nizhny Novgorod, it is important that teammates support the partners, especially the bench players. A small advantage of Samara is its freshness – the team played the game on Wednesday, while Pari NN met with UNICS on Thursday.
UNICS (Kazan) – Astana (Astana)
Time: 18:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Strana, League website
Rivalry history: 19 games, UNICS – 17 wins, Astana – 2 wins
UNICS: The Kazan team is one of three teams with CSKA and MBA that won all 3 games at the start of this season. Moreover, wins were deserved: in St. Petersburg, UNICS tactically defeated the reigning champion and beat Enisey with Pari NN. Now UNICS has a great opportunity to extend the winning streak by beating Astana. UNICS is a clear favorite and the coaching staff will certainly give more playing minutes to role players in order to preserve the strength of their leaders for a home game versus Loko.
Astana: However, it is still not worth underestimating the Kazakh team. Just a few days ago, Astana unexpectedly beat PARMA-PARI, celebrating the first League win of the season. Astana used their opportunities great, made half of the long-range shots (10 out of 20) and let the Perm teams score 72 points. «Will be interesting to see our competitiveness in the game with one of the League leaders», the team’s head coach Oleg Kiselev said before the game, and this is actually the case: the game in Kazan will show at what level Astana is now.
