On Saturday, the winner of the regular season will be decided in Kazan – UNICS and CSKA will play at Basket Hall.
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Time: April 13, 2024, 18:00
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Game, League website.
Rivalry history
CSKA and UNICS are the only teams to have played in the League since the very first season. And it’s no surprise that the rivalry history is incredibly rich. The teams first played in the 2009-10 season Final, where the Moscow team won the first title (66:55).
The teams have played 36 games in the United League and the Moscow team has 26 wins. UNICS leads in rivalry history of this season 2:1.
Game significance
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the game in Kazan, as the winner will be the best team in the regular season and will have home court advantage throughout the Playoffs.
There are no additional conditions for either UNICS or CSKA. Before the final round of the regular season, the teams had the same winning record (25-10), so a win would be enough for the top spot in the standings.
At the same time, the losing team could finish not second, but even third – that will become a reality with Zenit win over PARMA in St. Petersburg on Sunday. By the way, UNICS has never won the United League regular season.
This season
UNICS approaches the season’s biggest game with 3 losses in a row. Such a streak with Velimir Perasovic happened only once – at the second stage of the regular season in the 2022/23 season. And the last time the Kazan team lost 4 games was in early 2017.
However, CSKA has a slightly better stat in recent weeks: 3 losses in 4 games. The Army team has also lost 3 of the last 4 road games, but Emil Rajkovic team remains the best road team in the United League (12 wins in 17 games).
Signings
Both teams strengthened in April.
UNICS picked up Mikhail Belenitskii and Andrey Vorontsevich from Pari Nizhny Novgorod on loan until the end of the season, and the newcomers even made their debut for the Kazan team in the winning game over Zenit – 87:91.
CSKA also has a signing from Nizhny Novgorod: Aleksandr Gankevich has moved to the Moscow team on loan until the end of the season and could play his first game for the Army team on Saturday in Kazan.
Fact
All games between UNICS and CSKA ended with the guests team win.
Numbers
CSKA (86.6) and UNICS (86.0) are the 2 highest scoring teams of the season.
UNICS and CSKA lead the season in shooting percentage: 50% from the field and 39.3% long-range shots made by the Kazan team, 49.6% from the field and 38.3% three-pointers made by the Moscow team.
UNICS also ranks first in blocks (3.9) and CSKA ranks first in assists (20.1).
Nenad Dimitrijevic is the only player of the season with a 50-40-90 shooting stats (at least 50% from the field, 40% three-pointers and 90% free throws).
