Perm, Astana and Samara will host 3 regular season games on Thursday.
PARMA (Perm) vs Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar)
Time: 19:30 (17:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: Match! Igra , Start Triumph, League website.
PARMA: After 2 straight losses, PARMA rehabilitated by defeating UNICS on the road and winning the season series 3-1. As a result, the Perm team pulled away from Enisey and also retained a theoretical chance to catch up with Loko. However, in order to do that, the team needs to win the Krasnodar team and the remaining games, also hope for Loko losses in the last games of the season. Evgeny Pashutin team has a chance to take at least this game. PARMA has been a real threat for Loko in this regular season, winning the first 2 games and losing the third only in the very end.
Lokomotiv Kuban: The Krasnodar team confirmed the mood team reputation last week. After the first half against CSKA, Aleksander Sekulic team led, but as soon as the Moscow team added to defense, Loko got nervous and lost the third quarter – 16:32. And although the Krasnodar team has accustomed the fans to colorful comebacks, this time was unable to get back into the game. Despite that, Loko only needs to win once in 3 games to guarantee fourth place in the standings. The rivalry with PARMA is the last road game of the regular season, with home games against Zenit and Enisey upcoming. The St. Petersburg team is only 1 win ahead of Loko, so the Krasnodar team may well claim third place at the end of the season.
Astana (Astana) vs Runa (Moscow)
Time: 20:00 (18:00 Moscow time)
Place: Astana, Kazakhstan, SC Velotrek
Broadcast: League website
Astana: Temporary move to Almaty did not bring luck Astana – the team lost both games. And the actual change of head coach has not yet given fresh impact to the team: with the Greek specialist Astana lost 7 of 9 games, including MINSK. The Kazakh team offensive game has completely fallen apart. Since January, the only time the team has managed to score more than 80 points was in the last round against Avtodor, but even Markell Johnson fantastic performance (39 points, 11 assists and 57 eff. points, the second-highest total in League history) wasn’t enough to win the game. Astana is still technically among the play-in contenders, but has one of the toughest schedules in Group B ahead, facing both group leaders and MBA.
Runa: After the game Samara, Erturul Erdogan joked that Runa game unstable as the stock market. There’s some truth, but one thing about Runa game is more than stable: the Vikings seem to have gotten tired of shooting long-range shots. And while the Moscow team was able to compensate for that with accurate two-point shooting in their winning games against MINSK (3 of 20 three-pointers) and Nizhny (5 of 17). Attempts to get players to take more reliable shots from the paint resulted mostly in turnovers. The game with Astana in this sense promises to be easier for the Vikings – the loss of Royce Hamm, a key defensive player, has clearly had a very negative impact on Kazakh team game. However, Astana won the previous game without the leading player: that time Hamm was successfully replaced by Jordan Skipper-Brown (18 points and 11 rebounds), but Astana center hasn’t repeated such performances yet.
Samara (Samara) vs MBA (Moscow)
Time: 19:30 (18:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Samara, SCC Dvorets Sporta.
Broadcast: League website
Samara: The team continues to stay in the fight for first place in Group B. Although it’s not without luck – Uralmash will have to try hard to give up the first place – the Volga team is quite capable of going the rest of the way without loss. The team will play at home against MBA and Avtodor. Drazen Anzulovic team has the lead in the head-to-head games with MBA: Samara won the season series early, taking 3 out of 3 games. However, it could be said that this was a different MBA – since their last game on March 1, the Moscow team has clearly rebooted.
MBA: The March losses against the Volga teams (Samara and Avtodor) became refreshing. The Moscow team has picked up the pace with 6 straight wins and clearly doesn’t intend to stop. It’s still a question of whether Vasily Karasev team is a little late, but at this point, MBA looks like one of the main favorites to make the play-in and perform well there. The Moscow team has a very solid defense: during their winning streak never allowing opponents to score 80 points, preventing Uralmash and Avtodor from reaching that number as well. Potential win in Samara practically guarantees MBA participation in the next stage – it’s hard to assume that the Moscow team will lose at the end of the season to Runa, Astana and MINSK (with the last 2 games being at home, and the game with Runa can be hardly considered as road game).
