Lokomotiv Kuban will host Zenit in the Game of the Week in Krasnodar.
Time: 14:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start Triumph, Match TV, League website
The League’s vice-champion is preparing to face the reigning SuperCup champion at home. The key information about the Game of the Week:
Rivalry history
Lokomotiv Kuban and Zenit have played 24 games in the United League, with the rivalry history score currently tied – 12:12.
In the 2022/23 season, the teams had played 4 times, and the St. Petersburg team won 3 of them. The Krasnodar team managed to win only once, and it happened on the road: Vladislav Emchenko made a difficult shot for the win 5 seconds before the end.
As for the Playoffs, the teams had only one series in 9 years – in the 2018/19 season, Zenit was stronger – 3:1.
Season start
Judging by the first month of the season, the Game of the Week is not quite ordinary: the 6th place Zenit is travelling to visit Loko, which is at 12th place.
In fact, the Krasnodar team has started the 2023/24 season a far from ideal. First, Aleksander Sekulic team lost to UNICS and PARMA, and in the last 7 days they suffered losses to Uralmash and Enisey. The only win was against MBA – 79:71.
Loko is off to its worst start ever: the team has never had four losses in its first five games in the United League. However, a year ago the Krasnodar team also started slowly, winning only 2 out of 6 games – but then picked up momentum and eventually made it to the United League Finals. So it’s a little early to cross the team off the title contenders list.
Zakhar Vedischev said after the loss in Krasnoyarsk: “Of course, a lot of people are unhappy with the way we’re playing. But it’s better to have such periods at the beginning of the season than at the end. We believe in ourselves”.
Zenit has also had an uneven start to the season, with wins over Samara, Astana and MBA, but got losses against Uralmash and CSKA. This can be attributed to a significant roster renewal: 7 players left the club in the summer, and 5 new players came.
Stars
In the summer, Lokomotiv Kuban office did its best to keep its roster. Losses could not be avoided: Chris Horton left the team just before the start of the season. Perhaps this caused such drawbacks at the start of the season.
DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell, who showed as a top scorer that season, is also missing. While the forward is out, Jalen Barford remains the team’s main offensive option with 14.5 points per game. However, he’s not playing at his best either with making only 22.7 % of his three-pointers.
Okaro White is also worth mentioning with 5.4 rebounds and 13 points per game. And Scherbenev – Emchenko duo makes more than a third of the team’s assists – 5.8 assists combined.
Zenit has a lot of big names on the roster: Thomas Heurtel, Kyle Kuric, Vince Hunter, Sergey Karasev, Bojan Dublevic. Perhaps the best of them right now is Heurtel, who already has 15 assists in the game against Uralmash and 27 points against CSKA. The French guard confirms his status as an elite point guard, sharing the League lead in assists (8.6 per game) with Nenad Dimitrijevic.
Trent Frazier also is the key player for the St. Petersburg team. The 25-year-old guard hlped his team against MBA on Tuesday with 34 points. There’s no doubt he will show off his offensive skills many times throughout the season. Will he be able to do it already on Sunday in Krasnodar? We’ll find out soon!
Numbers
Loko has the 4th best offense in the League, scoring an average of 80.6 points. Zenit is not far behind – 78.6 points and 6th place in this ranking. But the St Petersburg team is noticeably better in defense: the team let opponents score only 74.8 points. The Krasnodar team is letting 84.2 points per game.
Loko is also slightly stronger in other key stats: more rebounds (36.4 vs 32.3) and more assists (17.7 vs 17.1), better three-point shooting (37.2% vs 35.9%), and less turnovers (11.5 vs 12.2 ).
Old-new friends
Zenit have two former Loko players: Denis Zakharov (2016/17) and Andrey Zubkov (2010-17). The Krasnodar team has no ex-Zenit players.
Fact
Lokomotiv Kuban hasn’t beaten Zenit at home in a long time. The last win was almost 3 years ago: on 13 December 2020, the Krasnodar team beat the Zenit 96-81. That loss was the first for Zenit in the 2022/21 season – Loko ended the team’s 7-game winning streak.
