Time to sum up the results of November:
MINSK had 10 000 fans at the game against Loko
It is already becoming like a tradition: PARMA-PARI leads in attendance, but then a lot of fans came to one of the games in the capital of Belarus, and MINSK takes the seasonal record.
This was the case last season: 7,925 fans came to the spring game versus Avtodor. So it happened this November: the game against Loko at the Minsk Arena was attended by 9,727 fans. Is it worth saying that the Belarusian team took away the season high from PARMA-PARI (6,612 against CSKA)?
By the way, Minsk Arena has the 2nd place in attendance after Zalgiris Arena: in their first season in the League, the Lithuanian team had 12 000 fans s at the game with CSKA. Nikita Kurbanov and Alexey Shved were there, Aliaksei Trastsinetcki and Rostislav Vergun were in MINSK.
Heurtel is the MVP of November and the season high owner
There was a lot of hype around Heurtel transfer to Zenit – even too much. And the French guard began to show why he attracts so much attention. 24 points with CSKA, 14 + 16 assists with Samara, 16 + 7 with Loko in Krasnodar. If there may still be questions for Thomas in defense, then there are no questions in offense.
In November, Heurtel shone. Firstly, he set a new season high in assists – 16. Secondly, he averaged almost 15 points per game (14.7) – and this is really a lot, because this Zenit is characterized by a team offense, where the threat can literally come from everyone. This is confirmed by the stats: Tompkins is the best scoring in the St. Petersburg team with 11.3 points, and 7 players score 7 or more points.
Zenit has won the last 5 games and is going after CSKA – UNICS really close. It’s not surprising that the League gave the MVP of November to Heurtel – the French guard deserved it.
Streak of the Month
CSKA has 7 wins in a row. In November, the Army team beat both Zenit (85:80) and UNICS (92:79), becoming the sole leaders of the standings. The Moscow team goes through the season with a 13-0 ratio and is one step away from the team’s best start in the League: in the 2018/19 season, CSKA also won 13 games, after got defeated in St. Petersburg.
Comeback of the Month
In Perm, PARMA continue to learn to stabilise chemistry, as Evgeniy Pashutin required. So far, however, PARMA-PARI is far from the best shape: in November, 1 win in 6 games – but how!
Pari NN has arrived to Molot. The first quarter was equal, but then the Perm team trailed by 16 points at the halftime. Ivan Strebkov three-pointer in the middle of the third quarter seemed to put an end the game, because Nizhny Novgorod lead increased to 19 points – 64:45.
At that moment, PARMA-PARI really started playing – it was possible to reduce the difference in just 7 minutes. The guests held the lead for some time, but it was not enough just a little bit: Bryon Allen put the Perm team ahead for the first time from the opening quarter 48 seconds before the end. This was enough – Strebkov missed the last seconds shot.
19 points is the maximum difference that one of the teams managed to make a comeback. However, in one of the games in Krasnodar, the comeback could have been even louder.
Roller Coaster of the Month
This season, Zenit and Loko demonstrate a slightly different level of play: if the Krasnodar team is the Top 6 caliber team at the first stage of the regular season, then the St. Petersburg team has another goals – the liability to go after or surpass CSKA and UNICS.
And yet, Loko and Zenit rivalry history was interesting. The game in Krasnodar was no exception: the St. Petersburg team scored only 10 points in the first quarter, the hosts had the lead after the first half.
The game changed a lot in the second half. Zenit won the third quarter 30:5, and the first Loko made shot was at the end of the quarter. 55:34 the St. Petersburg team led before the fourth quarter – but the most interesting was ahead!
In 6 minutes, Loko made a comeback trailing by 21 to only 6 points and 90 seconds later Jaylen Barford equalized the score! Aleksandr Shcherbenev could even put Loko ahead, but missed a free-throw. But Zenit remembered that the team is the reigning champion and the best defensive team of the season. Tompkins and Kulagin made the most important shots, taking away the chances of Loko miracle in 2 possessions.
The League President Sergey Kushchenko even joined out this incredible game:
– We believe that the League interest has not fallen and the level of basketball maybe not the highest, but quite decent. We see how our top games are being watched in Europe, they are being discussed. CSKA — UNICS, Zenit — CSKA, Loko played a very good game against Zenit. By the way, Loko and Zenit game in Krasnodar showed the VTB League style of basketball. It fell, got up, fell again and got up again, this is an interesting basketball for the fan. It’s like wavey. I think that by the second stage it will become more stable.
Shot of the Month
Loko failed to beat Zenit, but it was possible to avoid overtime against Enisey in the road. Jaylen Barford really didn’t want to play an extra 5 minutes in Krasnoyarsk:
Performance of the Month
In November, Enisey lacked in quality as Drazen Anzulovic said. The Siberian team had 4 losses in a row, even lost to MINSK at home.
The team urgently needed a hero or a small miracle. By coincidence, literally 3 days after the loss to the Minsk team, Enisey hosted Astana – not the strongest opponent. And Angelo Warner gave one of his best games: 32 points, 11 of 18 from the game, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and even a block with 38 eff. points.
Enisey won (89:76) and Warner updated the season high in points and showed the second best efficiency in the season. 32 points for Angelo is the 3rd result in his career and his high in the United League.
Debut
Daryl Macon became the one of the best UNICS signings, but suffered the injury at the SuperCup. The guard return was not forced, especially since the Kazan team has one of the biggest rosters in the League.
Macon first got into the roster against CSKA on November 10, but the coaching staff decided not to risk. So Daryl debuted against PARMA-PARI: 12 points and 2 assists in 11 minutes. From one game to another, the guard feels more and more confident and in the last game of the month with MINSK, he has already scored 26 points.
Mr. Double-Double
Remember Alan Williams from Loko? The center joined the Krasnodar team in 2019 and before a serious knee injury made 14 double-doubles in 26 games and he received Double-Double machine nickname.
Alan, unfortunately, did not return to the previous level after the injury and left Loko. But now there is a new Mr. Double-Double in the League – Nikola Milutinov! CSKA center finished 7 of 13 games with 10+ points and rebounds.
The Serbian bigman had the most impressive double-double in one of the games of the first stage: 24 points and 12 rebounds against UNICS (92:79)! Along the way, Milutinov set a season high in efficiency – 39 points.
Numbers of the Month
7 – Evgenii Baburin made 7 steals in 1 game. Pari NN guard set a career high. However, this did not save Nizhny from losing to the reigning champion (67:72).
Baburin was close to updating the League high by Deandre Kane, which was set in December 2016 – 8 steals. Kane also played for Pari Nizhny Novgorod.
Progressivity of the Month
Loko took the home loss against Zenit, but in general the November was success: 4 wins in 6 games and a rise up to 3 places in the standings from 8th to 5th place in 1 month.
