There will be three regular season games on Saturday.
Astana (Astana, Kazakhstan) vs. Zenit (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Time: 15:00 (12:00 Moscow time)
Place: Astana, Kazakhstan, Velotrek Saryarka
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Astana: The Kazakh team is the only one who has never played in the 2023/24 regular season. Astana will make a hot debut against one of the strongest teams in the League, which has had a poor start and will do its best to improve its stanginds place. The last time Astana beat Zenit two years ago, in October 2021, but Maksim Marchuk, Rustam Murzagaliev and Ruslan Aitkali are still on the team, and the main star of that game was Jaylen Barford (24 points), who has been playing for Loko. Special attention will be paid to Royce Hamm, who played for Zenit last season – the center will probably try to prove to his former club that his dismissal was a mistake.
Zenit: With only one win in three games, Zenit are only 8th in the table. Hardly anyone doubts that Zenit will soon find their game and storm their way into the Top 3, but Javier Pascual’s team clearly need to hurry up. Zenit’s calendar in the near future is not the easiest: the club from the banks of the Neva River will face MBA and UNICS, as well as a trip to Krasnodar. An important news was recently announced by Zenit’s head Alexander Tserkovsky: Georgy Zhbanov, one of the best defensive players in the league, who transferred from UNICS in the off-season, has almost recovered from an injury – most likely, he will fly with the team to Kazakhstan and, depending on his condition, may take the floor against Astana.
Avtodor (Saratov, Russia) vs Enisey (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
Time: 17:00 (16:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Saratov, DS Kristall
Broadcast: TV Start, Mir Basketbola, League website
Avtodor: Last week, the Saratov team opened their 2023/24 winning streak by beating Uralmash, and they did it in classic style. Milenko Bogicevic continues to look for the right combinations, and his experiments worked versus Uralmash. Avtodor weak spot in the first few games was the bench, and Bogicevic strengthened it by transferring Sindarius Thornwell from the starting lineup (Thornwell also started the first game of the season, but played less than two minutes due to injury). The American guard was one of the main heroes of the game (15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists), while Avtodor bench, led by Thornwell, looked much more dangerous than in previous games and completely outplayed Uralmash.
Enisey: Saturday game will be the twentieth anniversary game in the history of Avtodor and Enisey rivalry. In that time, the Siberian team has only twice managed to beat the opponents in Saratov,. In March 2023, the Krasnoyarsk team, led byDrazen Anzulovic, defeated Avtodor in a super defensive game, allowing the Saratov team to score only 58 points. Although Enisey game concept has changed considerably with Jovica Arsic arrival, it is unlikely that the guests will dare to play as favorites, so they will likely try to make Avtodorplay in positional basketball.
MBA (Moscow, Russia) vs Samara (Samara, Russia)
Time: 19:30 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall Moscow.
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
MBA: Although many analysts predicted a much more successful debut year for Samara before the start of last season, the reality disproved their predictions – MBA had a much better season and made the Playoffs with an all-Russian roster. Samara lost in this newcomers’ battle – did not get into the post-season and went into rebuilding – and in particular, losing twice to MBA during the regular season. MBA and Samara share the 6th place in the standings: both teams have 1 win each in 3 games, but MBA is still ahead of their rivals by additional stats. The Moscow team advantage in rebounding may become an important factor. Samara currently ranks last in the League in rebounding (31.0), while MBA is in the top five (36.3). Fans are expecting another breakthrough game by Evgeniy Minchenko, who is increasingly asserting his claim to be the team leader: in the game against Avtodor he made 6 blocks (a season high), and in the game against Loko he had a double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds, 7 of 8 from the game and 4 of 4 of free-throws).
Samara: After loss to Runa, Drazen Anzulovic spared no words of criticism towards his players. «This is our worst game since the start of the pre-season», «We didn’t even try to fight», «I am completely disappointed in my team»… Of course, there is some motivation in this. Samara can hardly be blamed for a lack of desire: even at the start of the fourth quarter, the Volga team trailed by only 2 points. Still, Samara will surely go into the game with doubled motivation. It’s a chance to not only get ahead of their rivals in the standings, but also to beat MBA in the United League for the first time. By the way, former MBA player Ilya Platonov, who scored his first points of the season, showed his brilliance in the game against Runa. It’s quite possible that Platonov will play an even key role in the game against his former team.
