Moscow, Samara and Perm will host regular season games on Saturday.
CSKA (Moscow) vs Avtodor (Saratov)
Time: 14:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: Match TV, Start, League website
CSKA: The Army team hasn’t lost in a month and theLeague’s sole leaders. Last week, the Moscow team confirmed the suatus by defeating Zenit in overtime. CSKA controlled the game, but win nearly slipped out. The Army team won in the extra time with a 15-point difference. CSKA scored another 100 and is second (87.3) in the League in scoring behind UNICS (88.2).
Avtodor: Avtodor can’t find its rhythm. Last week, the Saratov team gave up a win to Uralmash at home in the end, although looked decent in offense, scoring 14 three-pointers for the first time in the season. However, the defense was important: 98 points from Uralmash – the most total points Avtodor opponent had scored. With CSKA’s star performers and high-scoring offense, head coach Milenko Bogicevic will have to figure out how to stop the leader’s offense.
Samara (Samara) vs MINSK (Minsk)
Time: 16:00 (15:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Samara, SKK Dvorets Sporta
Broadcast: Start Triumph, League website
Samara: After a huge loss Zenit, Samara managed to rehabilitate at home. In St. Petersburg, 5 players came down with a fever, but at home the rotation was already 10 players – and after 3 quarters against Runa, the hosts led by 20. Drazen Anzulovic team ended a 3-game losing streak and has a chance to regain the positive balance of wins (8-8) and move up to 6th in the standings. Samara leads the League in three-point percentage (39.7%), and the game result will largely depend on the readiness of the team’s shooters.
MINSK: The Belarusian team parted ways with head coach Rostislav Vergun by mutual agreement. The team has 16 losses in the season, but the management hopes to save the season. The team had a chance to break the losing streak in Minsk against Astana, but failed. MINSK will try to meet the expectations of the fans and get their first win of the season in Samara.
Time: 18:00 (16:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: Match! Igra, Start, League website.
PARMA: PARMA has 4 wins in a row: 3 were against lower half of the standings, but the win over Lokomotiv Kuban gave fans hope for a successful season after a poor start (3-7). As head coach Evgeny Pashutin noted, they “played defense” – allowing to score 72, 67 and 56 points in the last 3 games. Against the paint-dominant Runa (57.2% two-point shooting), defense on the perimeter won’t matter as much as solid play in the paint. So far, the teams have only 1 game between: the first-round game in Moscow was tight that and ended with Runa win.
Runa: The League newcomer have slipped down the standings (8-8). The Moscow team began the 3-game road series with a loss to Samara, and stops in Perm and Nizhny Novgorod will have a direct impact on Runa place (4 teams have an even win-loss ratio). PARMA dominates in rebounds (37.4 rebounds), Runa – in the opponent’s paint; the game result will depend on bigmen rivalry.
