On Saturday, Krasnoyarsk and Nizhny Novgorod will host 2 regular season games.
Saturday, December 18
Enisey (Russia) — Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus)
Time: 15:00 (11:00 Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 17 games, Enisey – 13 wins, Tsmoki-Minsk – 4 wins
Enisey: Having beaten Astana in overtime, Ensiey interrupted a losses streak and now the team is on the 9th place. Moreover, compared to their main competitor for the 8th place — Kalev — the Krasnoyarsk team has two games in reserve. If Drazen Anzulovic’s team manages to win against Tsmoki, it will equal the number of wins not only with the Estonians, but also with PARMA. At the same time, Enisey will play its next game with the Perm team on December 23, so a successful result of the next games can seriously affect the teams’ places in the standings.
Tsmoki-Minsk: But Tsmoki are doing much worse. The win over Kalev is still the only one in the Minsk team stats. Undoubtedly, a very long pause played its role, which Rostislav Vergun also complained about. Since mid-November, the team has played only one game in the United League, losing a lot to UNICS. Such a long break in games clearly affected the team’s playing tone — but Tsmoki has less and less time to get into the right shape, because in January they are waiting for the next games with rivals fighting for the playoffs (games against Enisey and Astana).
What to follow: So far this season, Enisey does not confirm the status of the host team — the Siberian team lost all three games in Arena Sever, and took both wins on the road. Now Ensiey has an ideal chance to correct this situation.
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) — Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia)
Time: 16:00 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, KRK Nagorny
Broadcast: Match! Strana, TV Start, Mir Basketbola, League website
Rivalry history: 18 games, Lokomotiv Kuban — 13 wins, Nizhny Novgorod – 5 wins
Nizhny Novgorod: Zoran Lukic’s players have suffered their 3rd loss in a row. Unsuccessful games with Avtodor and Zenit were followed by a fiasco in Spain — Nizhny Novgorod met with the Unicaja in the Champions League there and lost by 24 points. Once again, Nizhny Novgorod offence, the 7th in the League in resultativity (78.4 points per game), did not show in the best way — the Volga team failed to cross the 70 points scored. Nizhny Novgorod will try to rehabilitate in a game with Lokomotiv, which is shaken by game troubles — in case of win, NN will bypass their opponents in the fight for 5th place.
Lokomotive Kuban: Loko have recently stalled. Although the Krasnodar team still in the5th place in the standings with a positive W/L ratio, it remains the most skipping team of the season, ahead of Tsmoki and elona Gora, who are at the bottom of the standings. The EuroCup game against Hamburg was the last for Evgeny Pashutin as Loko head coach. Even 27 points from Errick McCollum and 19 + 9 from Jonathan Motley did not help: after letting opponents score 100 points, which was the formal reason for the coach’s resignation. His assistant Branko Maksimovic will replace Pashutin in the upcoming games.
What to follow: In the game with Unicaja, Nizhny Novgorod once again suffered from the insufficient problems with bigmen — former CSKA player Michael Eric literally did not notice NN defense in the paint, scoring 19 points. But in the game with Loko, such a powerful and dynamic player as Jonathan Motley will be able to resist Niznny frontcourt, which is even more difficult to neutralize.
