Krasnodar will host Game of the Week between Lokomotiv Kuban and UNICS on Saturday.
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket-Hall
Time: April 5, 2025, 14:30 (Moscow time)
Broadcast: Match TV, Start Triumph, League website
Rivalry
Last regular season ended with season series score 2-2. The rivals confidently won home games.
Now the Kazan team leads in rivalry history score. UNICS won 31 of 59 games. The teams played more in VTB League, and had 8 Playoffs series.
Motivation
Basket Hall will host 2 neighbours in the standings on Saturday, but only for one team the clash will have significance. Loko goes 4th and will keep this place until the end of the regular season, and will definitely play with Uralmash in the first round of the Playoffs.
UNICS (34-7) is at third place, just behind Zenit (36-5) and CSKA (35-6). The Kazan team, who will face the Moscow team in the final game of the regular season, can still improve the place and get a more favorable Playoffs spot.
Hello once again!
The first 2 games of the season between the opponents ended with Loko win: 78:71 on October 20 in Krasnodar and 87:75 on December 1 in Kazan. The third game was March 22 and ended with the Kazan team first win (103:95). Now the 2 top games will be separated by only 2 weeks.
Reboot
The Krasnodar team lost B.J. Johnson and Karvel Anderson for the rest of the season, while the club recently reinforced with Tahjere McCall and John Jenkins. After the March loss to the Kazan team, Andrei Vedischev stated that the team is currently “playing at 60%” and is in search of solutions and rotation after difficult March that lacked rotation. Loko needs to integrate newcomers as soon as possible – a clash with the top opponent without any pressure will be a good opportunity.
Who will stop Akoon-Purcell?
The former Loko leader will play his third game against his previous team. In the first 2 he was noticeable, but didn’t shine: 13 and 14 points, 2 losses. Now the forward has finally fit into the UNICS system and is in great shape. On March 22, DeVaughn was the best with 28 points, 4 assists and 2 steals. In the last 10 games, he has only twice failed to score more than 20 points (20.9 points on average).
Old-new friends
Dmitriy Kulagin played for Loko from 2017 to 2020, DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell – from December 2022 to May 2024.
Dmitrii Uzinskii represented UNICS from 2019 through 2022.
Numbers
UNICS versus Top-4 teams this season – 3 wins, 7 losses. Lokomotiv Kuban versus Top-4 teams this season – 6 wins, 5 losses.
The Kazan team’s current winning streak is 7 games.
Lokomotiv Kuban leads in rebounds (38.7; UNICS is second with 38.0), steals (9.9) and blocks (4.7).
Patrick Miller is 3rd on the season in scoring (20.2 points per game)
