2 regular season games to be played on Wednsday.
December 23, Wednsday
Time: 19:00 (18:00 MSK)
Venue: Cristal SH, Saratov, Russia
Broadcast: Legue site
Avtodor survived the shock of first losses and got to 5-game winning streak (beatink Loko and Khimki). Having lost only one nome game, Avtodor can be seen as frontrunners of this game. Another factor is their domination in the paint. Avtodor are ranked 2nd in rebounds (with huge impact of Zelko Sakic – 9.1 rebounds per game), while the opponents are only ninth.
Zielona Gora also have an ace up their sleev. In offense, mostly. This season, they are ranked third in points per game after CSKA and Lokomotiv-Kuban. Furthermore, the Polish have positive record against Avtodor (3 of 4 won) and high-scoring performances. The average score of this faceoff is 100:97 for Zielona Gora, so the viewers can expect highlighting game.
Lokomotiv-Kuban – Tsmoki-Minsk
Time: 19:30 (19:30 MSK)
Venue: Basket Hall, Krasnodar, Russia
Broadcast: TV Start
Lokomotiv-Kuban managed to compensate for loss of Alan Williams, their best player of this season. Last time, they broke Zenit’s 7-game winning streak. And Reggie Lynch – being a substitute for Williams – was the hero of the game. Having been considered a defensive player, Lynch came with an outstaning offensive display of 16 points. And he didn’t forget to defend repeating League’s blocking record of 6. Lynch also shined in Eurocup’s game against Monaco: with 11+7, Loko sealed an important win to secure 2nd place in the group.
Tsmoki-Minsk are facing a tough challenge. The only time they beat Loko was in 2018, and the rest 15 games were won by Kuban. Plus, the Dragons will play in Krasnodar where Loko stay undefeated this season. Lokomotiv have the second highest scoring offense (90.1 points) while Tsmoki are the last trailing by 17 points per game.
