CSKA hardly take red-hot series, Loko send Mozgov and Shved to vacation, UNICS and Zenit make semi-finals. Quarterfinals in review

Main events from the first round of the 2021 playoffs!

Nizhny Novgorod nearly eliminated CSKA from the playoffs

Who would have thought the series between CSKA and Nizhny Novgorod would become one of the most interesting quarterfinals in League history?

Before the series began, the Army team was widely considered the favorite to win against Nizhny Novgorod. The big win in the first game, 84-59, only confirmed that. Moscow took advantage under the basket and scored twice as many points in the paint: 44 compared to just 22 for NN.

It was hard to single out the reigning champions: Voigtmann, Kurbanov and Lundberg finished the game with similar efficiency.

Before the game 2, Dimitris Itoudis warned that Nizhny on the road and Nizhny at home were different teams. And so it was: Not only did the Volga club hold their own, they took the lead in the first half!

After the half time break, Zoran Lukic’s team withstood the pressure of the opponent, played strong defense and forced clutch. That’s where Anton Astapkovich stepped up – his best performance of the season came into play in the game, scored 7 points in a row and helped NN clinch their first-ever playoff win over CSKA!

After the game Nizhny Novgorod held a traditional chant with the fans:

CSKA lost, even despite their total dominance in the paint: The Army team grabbed 24 offensive rebounds – just 3 fewer than Nizhny on both boards! And Nikita Kurbanov, with 9 offensive rebounds, set a new League playoff record and personal best for 12 years in the League.

CSKA lost in the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and only the second time under Dimitris Itoudis coaching. Nevertheless, after the big win Zoran Lukic talked about what his team needs to do right: “The key thing we need to fix urgently is to start controlling our shot. CSKA blew us away in that component today. If that happens again in game three we have no chance.”

But they couldn’t close their shot in game three either: Half of all their rebounds (46) came on offense (23). Even so, the play in the final game was identical to the one in the previous game: Nizhny Novgorod struggled and could have tied the game at the half, had Artem Komolov hit his free throws.

Zoran Lukic, however, hardly had any complaints about his guard: Komolov did not miss a shot in the first half:

Volga had a real chance to take the series, but the visitors were blighted by losses. Nizhny Novgorod committed 19 turnovers, much to the credit of the CSKA defense. Nikita Kurbanov set another personal record with five steals in a game.

Daniel Hackett was the main hero of the game. The Italian guard took the lead in the decisive game of the series and didn’t let his team down: 22 points, 6-of-11 from the field, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.

Nizhny lost the series, but were fighting to the end, and were rewarded by the fans’ applause after the game:

CSKA has a tough best-of-five series against Zenit. The first semifinal game is this Monday.

Shved is back, but Loko is still stronger than Khimki

Krasnodar showed their best result in the VTB League regular season to date in the tournament. But Loko ended up against perhaps the most uncomfortable opponent of all the unseeded teams in the league – Khimki. The situation for Kuban was made even more difficult by the absence of Mantas Kalnietis: The regular season MVP missed the series because of an ankle injury.

Khimki, on the other hand, brought their fans some good news: Alexey Shved was back in action in time for the quarterfinals. Still, Loko managed to close the series on short notice.

Both games – in Krasnodar and Moscow Region – were played in a similar fashion. Khimki, who played with a shorter rotation and only one foreigner, Errick McCollum, took the lead twice and went on a double-digit run: +13 in the first game and +11 in the second.

Each time, however, Khimki lacked the strength to maintain that advantage. In the first game, three players took over as Loko leaders at once: Nigel Williams-Goss was responsible for the playmaking, Mindaugas Kuzminskas was responsible for finishing off the offense, and Drew Gordon was in charge of the paint:

In their home game, Khimki were able to handle Kuzminskas – the Lithuanian forward stopped at the 10-point mark. Drew Gordon also hadn’t the brightest statistic either. Nigel Williams-Goss, on the other hand, was a hero for Loko: 30 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals with 33 points for efficiency!

Kevin Hervey was Kuban’s second-leading scorer. The forward came on after the break and nearly caught up with his teammate in scoring with 28 points – his best result of the season!

Even Alexey Shved, who had returned, couldn’t save Khimki. The star guard recorded a double-double of 19 points and 11 assists in the first game of the series:

In the game 2 he dedicated on D, making career-high 3 blocks:

Timofey Mozgov has also got in shape – the center had his best game on offense this season with 15 points. Defensively, Mozgov had 4 steals.

Loko sailed through the first round without a loss, snapping their winning streak at 11 games in a row. The Kuban have not lost since February 8, winning their first game in the series over Khimki. Lokomotiv-Kuban will play against UNICS in the semifinals.

Zielona Gora are making history, UNICS wins the Green Derby.

Zielona Gora has been a threat over the course of the season: They defeated CSKA at home, defeated Khimki, and fought Loko on the road to the very end. UNICS were no exception: In their first regular-season game, dubbed the “Green Derby,” the Poles won sensationally and lost the second game only thanks to a gamewinner by Jamar Smith in the final seconds.

The season was too difficult, however, and in the playoffs Zielona Gora, who had played more than 70 games in three tournaments, could not play its best in the series against UNICS. Even without the injured Jordan Morgan, Kazan played tough defense. The Polish team scored only 60 points in the first game, 27 points short of the season norm.

One of the main heroes of this defensive victory was John Brown: the forward confirmed his title of Mr. Lock, repeating the season record for steals:

UNICS played hard not only on defense, but also on offense, winning by a margin of +27. Okaro White had his best game of the season with 23 points and 5 rebounds:

The second game was slightly more tense: Zielona Gora led at a high tempo and scored 25 points in one quarter, but then once again got tangled up in the Kazan defense and surrendered the initiative, losing by -17 as the game wore on, ending their season with a loss.

After the game Zan Tabak stressed that Zielona Gora had made history: “For the first time a Polish team played in the playoffs of the United League. There had been four Polish teams in the tournament before and none of them made it.

After testing on the Poles, UNICS are now preparing for its semifinal series with Loko, which begins on May 18.

Injuries kept PARMA from showing their best against Zenit

PARMA made the playoffs of the United League for the first time in their history, which was a huge success for the team from Perm. However, the debut in the quarterfinals was marred by injuries of two point guards: Adas Juskevicius and Lorenzo Williams are out for the rest of the season, as was revealed on game day one.

Small wonder, then, that Zenit, the best team in the regular season, won each quarter in turn, ending the game with a 20-point lead. Xavi Pascual evenly distributed his players’ playing time: only Kevin Pangos played more than 26 minutes on the court, becoming the game’s top scorer in points (17) and assists (8).

The Canadian guard played his best in Game 2 of the series as well: He made 7 assists in the first quarter and eventually broke Zenit’s record for assists in a playoff game (13).

Petersburg themselves won quite convincingly – “+36”. Despite the big win, head coach Xavi Pascual gave credit to the Ural players: “They did a very good job for the season, they got through the coronavirus, and we understand perfectly that our opponent played without two key players today.”

However, Zenit didn’t play with a full squad either: Mateusz Ponitka will miss the rest of the season through injury, while Arturas Gudaitis may return in the playoffs.

The future is here

In the first round of the playoffs, teams weren’t afraid to give minutes to young players. A total of 9 players under the age of 22 participated in the quarterfinals. And Loko forward Andrei Martyuk will surely make it to the top of the best moments with his dunks on Anton Ponkrashov and Timofey Mozgov:

United League quarterfinals team

Kevin Pangos was Zenit’s leader in the series with PARMA: the Canadian averaged a double-double with assists per game and set a franchise record for assists in the playoffs.
Nigel Williams-Goss and Kevin Hervey were Loko’s most valuable players in the quarterfinals against Khimki, advancing the Kuban to the next round.
Nikita Kurbanov played outstanding basketball against Nizhny Novgorod, grabbing nearly nine rebounds a game. During this quarterfinal series, the CSKA forward set two personal career records at once.
Okaro White helped UNICS break down Zielona Gora, averaging 19.0 points per game.

Play-offs tree