Krasnoyarsk and Moscow will host 2 regular season games on Tuesday.
Enisey (Krasnoyarsk) vs. Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar)
Time: 19:30 (15:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
Enisey: The Krasnoyarsk team had some troubles in the last 2 games. The Siberian team lost to UNICS and PARMA, and also let opponents score more than 100 points for the first time this season. Enisey offense also didn’t work well. Jovica Arsic team is now at the 6th place in the Group A. The Krasnoyarsk team let the Perm team into focused offensive game, which was unusual for PARMA, but unexpectedly lost. Now the team will play against Loko, which has the same style of offense. At the first stage, the teams both had 1 wins in the rivalry. Interestingly, the Krasnodar team held Enisey leader Xavier Rathan-Mayes, who made only 4 of 21 shots from the game.
Lokomotiv Kuban: Loko also approached the game with 2 losses in a row (against Zenit and UNICS). The game with UNICS had typical scenario for the Krasnodar team: let opponent to get ahead and then made a heroic comeback. In the previous game it worked (then Loko made a 22-points comeback). This time the team was able to made a 17-point comeback, but that was it. But the day before Aleksander Sekulic team lost DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell. The forward participation against Enisey is questionable. But Jaylen Barford replaced him against UNICS, the guard scored United League career-high 33 points.
CSKA (Moscow) vs. UNICS (Kazan)
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: Match! Igra, Start Triumph, League website
CSKA: This game against UNICS will be one of the key in the second stage for the Moscow team. CSKA lost 3 regular season games in a row for the first time in the League history and got moved from the first place for the first time since October. Such decrease can be connected with Casper Ware absence against Zenit. But even with Ware, the games versus UNICS and PARMA didn’t; look so confident. Anyway, Emil Rajkovic need to find additional assistance as Casper will miss several games. CSKA management made a good move with signing Olivier Hanlan – one of the best scoring players of the Italian Serie A this season (18.4 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists). Such player will strengthen the offense; but the adaptation period will be the key for CSKA.
UNICS: UNICS has chances to win the League regular season for the first time in history. But the Kazan team schedule is not easy. In the next 5 games, the team will play 4 of them on the road and will host Zenit in Basket Hall. Velimir Perasovic team is in great shape as UNICS won 6 straight games along with Uralmash. In the previous game against CSKA a month ago, the Kazan team showed great defense, allowing the Moscow team to score 73 points. Unfortunately, the MVP of February Dmitry Kulagin, who was on elf the main team players of the team in recent months, got injured.
