Krasnoyarsk and Kazan will host 2 regular season games on Saturday.
Enisey (Krasnoyarsk) vs. PARMA (Perm)
Time: 16:00 (12:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Enisey: The Krasnoyarsk team three-game winning streak came to an end against UNICS. As a result, PARMA was able to equalize with Enisey, and now the Siberian team is ahead only due to a better points-per-game ratio.Enisey is formally the favorite: the team plays at home and noticeably outperforms the guests in average scoring – 84.1 points versus 78.1. Nevertheless, the Perm team won the last game. TEnisey offense is largely built aroundXavier Rathan-Mayes: Enisey ranks last in the League in assists (13.8 assists per game – even less than MINSK). So Jovica Arsic needs to think of a plan B in case the scenario of the previous game repeats itself, when Rathan-Mayes scored 29 points but didn’t get proper support from his teammates.
PARMA: After the lost game against Samara, PARMA fully rehabilitated by beating CSKA for the second time this season. Evgeny Pashutin team will face a very difficult stretch in the coming weeks, as the Perm team will face all the Top 4 teams. So a game against an equal opponent could become very important. The Perm team has experience beating Enisey this season: PARM defeated the Krasnoyarsk team just over a month ago, completely dominating in rebounds, and B.J. Johnson had one of his best performances with 29 points and 10 rebounds.
UNICS (Kazan) vs. Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar)
Time: 14:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match TV, TV Start, League website
UNICS: The Kazan team had a great shape before the break. A five-game winning streak over CSKA and Enisey. UNICS had its best offensive game of the season versus the Krasnoyarsk team (107 points). Erick Green set a career-high 31 points. But the main hero of UNICS in February was undoubtedly Dmitry Kulagin, who became the MVP of the month. All of this, as well as Loko disappointing performance against Zenit, allows to consider Velimir Perasovic team the favorite. The Krasnodar team doesn’t always look confident on the road, which was confirmed by the first game between these rivals in the season: then the Kazan team defeated Loko by 18. However, at that time Loko was just looking for the game, and also had a lot of injuried players. Now all Loko leaders are healthy, so the game promises to be a very exciting.
Lokomotiv Kuban: Loko has had a strong stretch in the last 10 games, winning 9 and only suffering a rather unexpected loss to Nizhny. However, the February game with Zenit became Loko’s worst game of the season. Having played the first half equally, the Krasnodar team completely failed in the second half – 57:23. Even in a game that Aleksandr Scherbenev called phenomenally bad, Loko had some bright spots, as Andrey Martiuk had an impressive double-double (15+13) and set a career-high in rebounds this season. The Krasnodar team will have a motivation, which will be supported by DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell excellent performance at the All-Star Game: the forward made 44 points in 31 minutes and was named the MVP.
