The final games of the 2021 are in Moscow and St. Petersburg!
Sunday, December 26
CSKA (Russia) — Enisey (Russia)
Time: 14:30 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall Moscow
Broadcast: Match! Strana, TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 17 games, CSKA — 16 wins, Enisey – 1 win
CSKA: For the Army team, a home game against Enisey is a good opportunity to end the calendar year on a positive note. In the Euroleague, this calendar year had not endend successfuly for Dimitris Itoudis’ team — they lost to Real Madrid, scoring 65 points. Despite this, CSKA remains the clear favorite in the game with the Krasnoyarsk team – CSKA has an overwhelming stats advantage both in the rivalry history and directly this season.
Enisey: The Siberian team failed to extend their winning streak to three games — PARMA confidently beat them in Krasnoyarsk, having already come off at a distance of two wins. Ensiey continues to stay in the Top-8, but now Kalev is inferior only in the personal stats. Even taking into account all CSKA problems, a win in this game will be a real feat for Drazen Anzulovic’s team – Eniesy has never beaten the Army team on the road so far in history.
Who to follow: the most unsuccessful game with Real Madrid was for Tornike Shengelia. For the first time this calendar year, the Georgian forward finished the game with zero points. In the match against Enisey, Shengelia will certainly try to prove that he can score.
Zenit (Russia) — UNICS (Russia)
Time: 16:30 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sibur Arena
Broadcast: Match TV, League website
Rivalry history: 20 games, UNICS – 12 wins, Zenit – 8 wins
Zenit: Having lost to Avtodor, the St. Petersburg team missed out on CSKA which broke into the Top-3. Xavi Pascual’s team was able to cheer up the win in the tgame with Maccabi. If in the game with Avtodor, Billy Baronmissed three 3-pointers at the end of the game, which prevented the St. Petersburg team from making a comeback, then in the game with the Tel-Aviv team Baron was on top — his 3-point bomb that brought Zenit the most important win in the Euroleague a few seconds before the end. Zenit’s offense, as in the game with Avtodor, did not shine again (73 points per game): This is because Jordan Mickey, the most important element of the team’s offense, missed both of these games.
UNICS: This week the Kazan team also performed in the Euroleague, giving the audience one of the brightest basketball performances of the outgoing year. For 3 quarters, UNICS dominated the game with Barcelona, but in the final 10 minutes they could not cope with the pressure, lost a 20-point advantage and lost in overtime. A lot in the game against Zenit will depend on whether Velimir Perasovic’s players will cope with the psychological consequences of this blow.
What to follow: One of the main factors of the game is whether Jordan Mickey will be able to play. In his absence, Zenit suffered not only in the offense, but also in the paint. It is characteristic that in the games with Avtodor and Maccabi, the bigmen became the best for the St. Petersburg counterparts: Saratov’s Grant Jerrett scored 20 points and made 9 rebounds, and Jalen Reynolds, well known to Zenit fans from Maccabi, scored 24 points to the former team, adding 11 rebounds to this.
