Lokomotiv Kuban will host UNICS in the Game of the Week.
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Time: December 2, 14:00 (Moscow time)
Broadcast: Start Triumph, Match! Igra, League website
The rivalry between Krasnodar and Kazan will continue this Saturday!
Rivalry history
Loko and UNICS have almost the longest rivalry in League history. The teams have played 46 games. The Kazan team has 25 wins and 21 losses.
Loko and UNICS have met in the last 3 Playoffs – and the Kazan team has always won. In 2021, UNICS stopped the Krasnodar team in the Semifinals (3-0), and in the 2021/22 season the team beat Loko in the third place series (3-1).
The teams had played last spring as well – but already in the Finals. Loko started the series with a solid win – 88:76, but then got 4 losses. 3 of those games were tense till the end: UNICS won 79-76, 82-81 and 90-88. Thus, the Kazan team became the League champion for the first time in its history.
This season
The teams also played in the 2023/24 season. The game in Kazan was the season opener, but expectations did not match reality. UNICS quickly made a double-digit lead, and the Kazan team lead was even 23 points.
As a result, the only Krasnodar team player to score more than 10 points was Okaro White (18), while UNICS was led by Nenad Dimitrijevic and Jalen Reynolds, who combined for 38 points.
What next?
Loko had a bad season start. Aleksander Sekulic team lost to PARMA, Uralmash and Enisey, and for a long time had a negative win-loss balance in the standings. A loss to Astana in Kazakhstan was a kind of reset for Loko – since then the team hasn’t lost and gradually improving.
Now Lokomotiv Kuban has 4 wins in a row: over CSKA, Avtodor, Runa and MINSK. The Krasnodar team is already back in the Top 4, and they’ll get as close as possible to Zenit if will win on Saturday.
UNICS has had a much more pleasant start. The reigning champions had 4 wins and 1 loss in October, won 5 of 7 games in November, and second in the standings.
Numbers
UNICS is the best Leaugeteam in offense, averaging 88.3 points – 5 more than Loko. The Kazan team has never scored 100 or more points, but only once scored less than 80 points. Velimir Perasovic team show stability and so far only CSKA has been able to cope with this offense. The Kazan team defense is also in the League’s Top 3, allowing opponents to score just 76.1 points per game.
Loko is second to UNICS in both stats: scoring 83.1 points and allowing to score 78.9. But the Krasnodar team is better in rebounds: 36.9 rebounds, the second in the League.
UNICS is the only League team with less than 10 turnovers per game (9.5).
MVP
The day before the game in Krasnodar, the League announced DeVaughn Akon-Purcell as the MVP of November. He averaged 19.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists and the Krasnodar team won 5 of 6 games.
Face-to-Face
Jalen Reynolds vs. Okaro White
Jalen is not UNICS best scoring player, but everyone knows what the forward is capable of if he’s in the mood. He’s already shown his class: 27 points against Avtodor, 19 points each against PARMA and MINSK. Reynolds was also good versus Loko: 16 points and 5 rebounds in less than 20 minutes.
Okaro White, Loko forward who can work on defense and take the lead in offense, will try to make life as difficult as possible for Jalen.
More importantly, both Jalen and Okaro are the team leaders in rebounding, and it will be interesting to watch this duel.
