In the games of the week, Lokomotiv-Kuban Krasnodar will host Zenit St. Petersburg.
Location: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall (capacity: 7,500 spectators)
Time: October 17, 2021, 14:00 (14:00 Moscow time)
Broadcasts: Match TV, League Website
Loko and Zenit have met 18 times in the United League, and the advantage here is on Loko side: they won 11 times. Moreover, in each of the 7 seasons in which St.Petersburg team participated, Loko beat its northern opponents at least once.
But in the playoffs, the teams met only once – it was in the 2018/19 season. And there Zenit was stronger – 3-1, despite Loko home court advantage.
But this rivalry has not only basketball roots. At once 5 Zenit basketball players have played for Loko in different years. And if Denis Zakharov and Andrey Zubkov came to St. Petersburg through other clubs, then Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Mateusz Ponitka and Dmitry Kulagin did not have an intermediate point in their careers.
The start of the season
The start of the 2021/22 season Loko and Zenit turned out to be similar – both teams have already lost in one of their games. However, Loko lost to the vice-champion UNICS, playing in an incomplete roster and providing playing minutes to young players. Andrey Martyuk, for example, played his best game in the VTB League so far.
But Zenit unexpectedly struggled in a home game with Astana, and Kazakhstan champion looked at least as good as the home team.
Both clubs also take part in European tournaments. Krasnodar is still waiting for the start of the EuroCup – their first game is scheduled for October 20, and the opponent is the Andorra (Spain). Zenit has already played 4 games in the Euroleague and may well be satisfied with the results: Xavi Pascual’s team has won three times and currently shares the 3rd place with 5 more teams. They are flying to Krasnodar after a double week in the Euroleague.
Why can Loko win?
Loko strength is in speed and effective offence. The Krasnodar team is the second best team in the League in resultativity (95.7 points average), second is CSKA. Last week, Evgeny Pashutin’s squad set a season record by scoring 108 points to Avtodor.
The secret of Lokomotiv-Kuban success lies in the mix of youth and legionary experience. The coaching staff is not afraid to give playing time to promising basketball players – Martyuk, Vedishchev, Emchenko, Dolinin, Kalinov – and releases them on the court with strong foreign performers. Yes, Loko does not shoot too successfully from deep (36.9% three-pointers), but it fully compensates for this with a high pace of play.
On the side of the Kuban team – freshness. Zenit is going to Krasnodar after a hard week in the Euroleague, and this game will be his third in 6 days. And finally, there is the home court factor: the last time Loko lost to Zenit in the Basket Hall in May 2019 – more than 2 years ago!
Why can Zenit win?
Among the main Zenit jokers is a long roster and a high level of performers. Xavi Pascual’s team has at least 2 players in each position, and only with Shabazz Napier injury there were certain difficulties with the main point guard.
Nevertheless, it is precisely the quality of the off-season and the depth of the squad that should help Xavi Pascual’s team to withstand the high pace that Lokomotiv-Kuban will impose.
The variability of the offence is one of the distinctive qualities of this Zenit. Each of the players is dangerous in offence and, even worse for the opponents, can shoot from the perimeter. There are also strong personal players in Zenit who are ready to complicate the play of Loko leaders, Eric McCollum and Darius Thompson. And against the might of Jonathan Motley, Xavi Pascual has an immediate answer in Jordan Mickey, Arturas Gudaitis and Alex Poythress.
Who to follow
Errick McCollum. The Loko guard scored 38 and 30 points in the last two gamess and is among the top three resultative players of the season in the United League. At the same time, McCollum is also in the top 3 in assists (7.3 on average per game).
Comment
Evgeny Pashutin, Lokomotiv-Kuban Head Coach:
– Zenit plays defensively, acts competently in positional offence. They have a lot of snipers, and even the bigmen can shoot from a distance. We need to be mobilized and concentrated for the entire 40 minutes of the game. There will be two key points for us in the upcoming game – maximum pressure on the opponent’s snipers and control on rebounds. As for ourselves, it is clear from the recent games that communication within the team is improving, the players understand their roles on the court. We know that there is still a lot of work to be done in this direction, Stanislav Ilnitskiy and Greg Whittington have just joined the team. They expanded our rotation, which will allow us to maintain the necessary pace and pressure on the opponent for all 40 minutes of the game.
Xavi Pascual, Zenit Head Coach :
— After a difficult and demanding double week in the Euroleague, we have a very difficult game on the road against Lokomotiv-Kuban. Loko is a team with a very high-quality squad and an experienced coach who knows the VTB United League very well. We know that this game is a big challenge. To win this battle, we will need to show a game of the highest level: to hold the game intensively and with concentration, as well as overcome our fatigue.
