In the Game of the Week, CSKA will host UNICS.
Place: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Time: November 10, 2022, 19:30 (Moscow time)
Broadcasts: TV Start, Match TV, League website
CSKA vs UNICS! The two best teams at the start of the season won 8 games in a row, but one of the winning streak will end this Thursday.
Rivalry
CSKA and UNICS have faced many times both in regular season games and in the playoffs. Despite the principled rivalry, the Army team significantly outperform the opponent in wins. In the VTB League, CSKA had 22 wins and UNICS got 7 in their head-to-head games.
Although in the previous season CSKA could not beat UNICS. First, the Kazan team won at home last November – 69:64. And then, just before the All-Star game in Moscow, one of the most exciting regular season games in the history of the League happened. UNICS and CSKA could not end the game for 50 minutes, and only in the last second of the third overtime, OJ Mayo hit the winning shot:
The first month of the season
CSKA and UNICS are two underfeated teams in the 2022/23 season. They have won all 8 games and are leading the standings.
Both the Army team and UNICS beat the reigning champion in St. Petersburg. But if UNICS took the lead from Zenit throuout the game, then CSKA took the lead from the first minutes. Although, it is worth noting, the ending of both games came out similar: Zenit was close, both times did not made key shots.
But Zenit became almost the only opponent who managed to drag CSKA and UNICS into the endings. In all other games, the lead was double-digit – until UNICS game in MInsk. The Kazan team unexpectedly almost lost to MINSK on the road – 58:54.
Numbers
CSKA and UNICS are the best attacking teams in the 2022/23 season. CSKA scores 94.8 points, UNICS – 87.9 points.
The Moscow team leads the season in the shooting percentage (53.1%), assists (22.4) and rebounds (39.9), and also made less turnovers (12.1). UNICS is the best in steals (10.3) and blocks (4.0).
CSKA guard Alexey Shved is the 3rd best scoring player of the season (16.8 points), Jalen Reynolds from UNICS is the 4th (16.5). CSKA center Nikola Milutinov is 2nd in rebounds (8.3), Nenad Dimitrijevic is 2nd in assists (7.6). UNICS forward Anthony Brown has 68.2% of three-pointers made – this is the best in the entire League. Samson Ruzhentsev has the highest three-point percentage of 61.5%.
Nikola Milutinov, Alexey Shved and Jalen Reynolds are leading this season in getting into Teams of the Tour. Each of players has already been in the Top-5 players for 3 times this season.
Winning streaks
UNICS made the best start in its history, starting the season with 8 consecutive wins. But this is not the most impressive series in the Kazan team history: in the 2015/16 season they won 14 games in a row, until they lost to CSKA.
In turn, CSKA’s record is 19 consecutive wins in the same 2015/16 season.
Injuries
CSKA forward Semen Antonov seriously injured his Achilles on October 23 against Avtodor and is out for a long time.
UNICS also has injured players: Andrey Vorontsevich and Anthony Brown will miss the game in Moscow. Daryl Macon participation against CSKA is questionable – the guard has not yet made his debut for the Kazan team.
Frenchmen
Both teams have French players. CSKA has Livio Jean-Charles, a 29-year-old forward who averages 10 points and 5.5 rebounds.
Louis Labeyrie – the first French in UNICS history – the starting-5 player team and has 10.6 points and 6.1 rebounds.
Old-new friends
There are 3 ex-CSKA players in UNICS – Andrey Vorontsevich, Mikhail Kulagin and Artem Zabelin. 2 former UNICS players play for CSKA – Nikita Kurbanov and Artem Komolov.
History overview
UNICS head coach Velimir Perasovic played with CSKA during his playing career and the first win over the Army team was in the 1988/89 season. Perasovic then played for Jugoplastika (now – Croatian Split) and as part of this team he defeated CSKA twice (89:77 and 91:77), scoring 21 points in 2 games.
Sergey Tarakanov, Viktor Berezhnoy and Vladimir Tkachenko played for CSKA at that time, Sergey Belov was the coach. Tony Kukoc and Dino Radja also played for Jugoplastika under the Bozhidar Malkovic coaching. That season Jugoplastika won the FIBA Champions Cup for the first time.
Draft
CSKA and UNICS have players who were selected by the NBA teams in the 2015 draft. San Antonio Spurs drafted Nikola Milutinov at 26th pick, the Lakers selected Anthony Brown at 34th pick.
But if Brown decided to try at the NBA and played for the Lakers, New Orleans, Orlando and Minnesota before joining UNICS, then Milutinov never went overseas and stayed in Europe – first in Olympiacos and then in CSKA.
Comments
Emil Rajkovic, CSKA Head Coach:
– UNICS is putting in a lot of energy both defensively and offensively, and this is a style of coach Perasovic. Their record tells about them, they are still unbeaten and they’ve defeated Zenit in St.Petersburg. Like always, they are a really good basketball team. I expect a real battle tomorrow, a physical game. We have to answer, to be physical and agile as well that will help us implement or game plan.
Velimir Perasovic, UNISC Head Coach:
– We have a game against one of the League best teams. Unfortunately, our team is not optimal due to injuries, but I promise that our team will be in the best shape against CSKA. We have drawn conclusions from the recent games that were not the best for us and we will try to show our best on Thursday.
