Astana, Samara and Minsk will host regular season games on Monday.
Astana (Astana, Kazakhstan) vs UNICS (Kazan, Russia)
Time: 20:00 (17:00 Moscow time)
Place: Kazakhstan, Astana, Velotrek Saryarka
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Astana: After 2 home losses, Astana fixed the situation with the win against MINSK. But it became very difficult – the Kazakh team was able to defeat the opponents only in the overtime. 2 Astana players set career-highs in rebounds – 14 rebounds by Royce Hamm, 17 by Devin Davis (this, by the way, is a repeat of the current League season-high). If Oleg Kiselev team want to win against UNICS with their powerful frontcourt, Astana bigmen duo will need to be just as efficient.
UNICS: The reigning champion has long been CSKA main pursuer in the standings, but has suffered 3 lossess in the last month and slipped to 3rd place, passing Zenit. That’s not critical in and of itself: after all, UNICS finished second in the regular season last season behind CSKA. However, Velimir Perasovic certainly has reason to think. After a shocking loss to Loko, the Kazan team got back on track, allowing Nizhny Novgorod to score 16 points in the first half (a defensive record for the season). But the game against Zoran Lukic team, which currently has 8 injured players. The good news for UNICS is Zenit’s loss to CSKA, which gives the Kazan team a good chance to get close to second place.
Samara (Samara) vs Runa (Moscow)
Time: 19:30 (18:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Samara, SKK Dvorets Sporta.
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Samara: After a tough win over PARMA, Drazen Anzulovic team has a 3-game winning streak. The worst was just the last game against Zenit, where Samara offense completely lost and failed to score 60 points. Samara sharpshooters are frankly failed. TheVolga team still leads the League in three-point percentage, but at this rate risks losing the spot to Enisey or Zenit.
Runa: The loss to Avtodor was a surprise for Erturul Erdogan’s team. Despite this, Runa came to the game against Uralmash with a completely different attitude. The newcomer derby result was decided in the end, where the Moscow team outplayed the opponents for the second time in the season. The Vikings regained sixth place and are now is behind Enisey. The Moscow team has a 3-game road series ahead, but all their future opponents are below in the standings.
MINSK (Minsk, Belarus) vs Enisey (Krasnoyarsk, Russia)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Belarus, Minsk, Falcon Club
Broadcast: Match! Igra, Start Triumph, League website
MINSK: The team was close to win recent game, but couldn’t hold it. MINSK was ahead 11 seconds left versus Astana, but Aleksandar Zecevic committed a foul in the paint and let Astana to tie the score, then the Kazakh team had never let the win away. There are some optimistic reasons for MINSK. The team has great fighting motivation, Zecevic became a key player of the team (especially after departure from Nizhny) – 29 points in the 4th game for the new team. This is more than the center made for Nizhny in all games.
Enisey: Enisey home game winning streak has come to an end in the previous Round. CSKA defeated the Siberian team in Krasnoyarsk for the first time since last season. Despite that, Enisey is still 5th in the standings and has a serious threat for the 4th placed Loko – in case of winning in Minsk, the Krasnoyarsk team will tie with the Krasnodar team in wins and bypass the team due to face-to-face winning game. CSKA was able to stop Xavier Rathan-Mayes, which became one of the key factors of winning. The American guard got only 19 points (7 of 19 from the game). The experience shows than Rathan-Mayes doesn’t have 2 such games in a row: after 19 points against Zenit, he made 42 versus PARMA and after 16 points scored to Uralmash, he was able to score 29 to Samara.
