Three regular season games will be played on Sunday.
CSKA Moscow (Moscow, Russia) vs. PARMA (Perm, Russia)
Time: 14:00 (Moscow time)
Palce: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: Match TV, TV Start, League website
CSKA: The Moscow team has started the season with three wins in three games, the team share first place with the League newcomer Runa. But the wins weren’t so easy: the Army team had the control of the game only against Enisey, while MBA and Zenit made CSKA to play hard. CSKA advantage over many of its rivals is variation. Emil Rajkovic commented on Casker Ware performance dependancy: “I don’t want the team to depend on one player”. The Army team has been able to live up to their coach’s vision: Tonye Jekiri was the key player against MBA, Livio Jean-Charles was the key factor against Enisey, and Melo Trimble, who is already making a bid for sixth man of the season award, played powerfully against Zenit.
PARMA: Evgeniy Pashutin pointed out the lack of aggression against Pari NN that the Perm team showed versus Loko. It’s not just about aggression, of course, but also about the frankly poor peformance: 20 turnovers (6 of them by Isaiah Reese), 41% from the game – clearly not the kind of numbers you can expect to win against Zoran Lukic team. That’s even more true against CSKA, as PARMA has only one win against the Army team – in September 2020. With the Moscow team level of play at the start of the season, the Perm team will have to do their best as MBA did, for example. And at the very least, PARMA need to support Richard Solomon and C.J. Bryce, who scored more than half of the team’s points (37 of 61) against Pari NN.
Uralmash (Ekaterinburg, Russia) vs Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar, Russia)
Time: 17:15 (15:15 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Ekaterinburg, Russia, GAUSO “Dvorets Igrovykh Vidov Sporta”
Broadcast: Start Triumph, League website
Uralmash: After sensation in the first game of the season, Uralmash slowed down, losing to Avtodor and Runa. The loss to the Vikings, their last year’s SuperLeague rivals, must have been especially painful. So far, the main problem for the Yekaterinburg team, which was also evident against Zenit, is the poor offense performance. Uralmash head coach Milos Pavicevic said that his team credo is to play fast, but so far that hasn’t transfered into offensive performance. In three games, Uralmash has never managed to score more that 80 points. The team management understands this and continues to work on strengthening the roster. Experienced center Octavius Ellis can debut against Loko. He may be remembered by Enisey fans – he played 6 games for the Siberian team in the 2017/18 season.
Lokomotiv Kuban: Although the Krasnodar team finally got their first win of the season last round, it is early to call them clear favourites in the game. Loko still can’t find their game: even in their win against MBA, Loko trailed for most of the game and only managed to defeat the Moscow team in the end. On the other hand, Jaylen Barford and Zakhar Vedischev are already in the training process, and although it was hard to call them helpers against MBA (Barford made 1 of 8 shots in the game), it’s unlikely that getting in shape will take long. Newcomer Jordan Morgan is also showing good game: it’s too early to talk about him as Chris Horton substitution in the team defence, but he’s increasingly taking over in the offense. Loko bigman was the team best scoring player against MBA (16 points).
Runa (Moscow, Russia) vs. Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia)
Time: 16:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Sport Palace “Dynamo”
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
Runa: The Vikings became only the fifth team in United League history to start their denut season with three straight wins. Even though Runa has yet to face any of the League’s giants, the Moscow team has already written the club’s name in history anyway – and sensationally topped the standings. The game versus Nizhny could be a great opportunity to gain a foothold on the top. Runa has four games against roughly equal teams, three of them at home. Only on 9 November the newcomer will have a serious test – a trip to Kazan. As team coach Erturul Erdogan said: “We’re trying to build a winning culture, especially at home. And we have to let every opponent know: ‘This is our home court and we will play hard”. Runa has given no reason to doubt his coach words.
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny has started with two wins and has no intention of leaving the leading group either. Pari Nizhny Novgorod offence hasn’t been amazing so far: in the game against PARMA, only Bryon Allen managed to reach double-digit scoring stat with 14 points. However, Zoran Lukic team was the worst performing team in Group A last season, which didn’t prevent them from finishing fourth in the regular season. Pari NN guard Evgenii Baburin had three steals against PARMA; it’s unlikely that Runa backcourt containing Cameron Young and Nikola Ivanovic will escape from one of the best defensive player in the League history.
