UNICS will host Khimki in a regular season game.
Where:
Basket hall (7000 seats), Kazan, Russia
When:
February 2, 2020, 18:30 (18:30 MSK)
Broadcast:
Match TV, VTB United League site
Look in the past
Season 2016/17, elite snipers duel Alexey Shved vs Keith Langford
Face to face:
Khimki vs UNICS has been a deadly feud for a long time. The teams have a list of memorable faceoffs, with the last being 2019 playoffs. Moscow region trailing 0-1 in the series, got to win three in a row to get the Euroleague spot.
In 2018/19 regular season Khimki and Kazan exchanged home wins – 78:65 in Moscow region and 73:58 in Tatarstan.
This season’s November game ended with unrepresentative result of 109:83 for the Yellow-blues. +26 is the second largest margin is this duel.
Overall score is 14:9 for Khimki, but it feels like the faceoff has only started.
Week
UNICS were beaten by Galatasaray on the road in Eurocup’s Top 16 (76:90). Two rounds before the end of Top 16 all four teams in the group have a record of 2-2.
Khimki met CSKA in Euroleague and lost 69:87. Moscow region club lost six of the last seven in Euroleague and dropped to 12th place.
Intrigue
There’s a sufficient distance between Khimki and UNICS in the standings, but both clubs can feel comfortable. Especially Khimki with their 14-1 record and the 1st place. Kazan had an unstable start, but after last week’s win over Zenit they are ranked 4th (9-5). The White-greens can finish in top 4 and proceed to playoffs with homecourt advantage.
However, ther’s a lot of games to play and both teams have to defend their position. Finally, UNICS’ motivation is to revenge the big time loss in Khimki which happened after 2019 playoff defeat from the same team.
Reinforcement
On January 4th, Elgin Cook scored 20 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists in UNICS vs Avtodor. This week, ex-Saratov leader signed with Kazan. In Avtodor, the American averaged 15.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in VTB League.
Loss
On January 23, Jeremy Evans injurred his ankle in a Euroleague game against Baskonia. Key player of Khimki rotation will supposedly miss about two months. The club may even try to work on a transfer market.
Stat
Khimki are the best scoring team (96.2 per game) and assisting (24.1). UNICS are ranked 8th (85.1) and 10th (17.1).
Kazan leads the rating in blocks (3.8), and Khimki are near with 3.7 and the 2nd place.
Familiar faces
Valerii LIkhodey played for Khimki in 2016/17 season.
Duel
Errick McCollum vs Alexey Shved.
Two elite snipers, Russia and World stars of the coming All-Star rivals will be the highlight of the week. Russian guard is League’s top scorer (22.3 points), while the American is ranked 3rd (20.2) McCollumm and Shved’s shootout will be a crucial factor is this Big five game.
Speech
UNICS head coach Dimitris Priftis:
“This game will be tough and intense. Khimki are really strong this year and remain stable in VTB League. We’ll have to work hard, especially in defense. We need to control their long-range shots and ball movements, and obviously fight for the rebounds.”
Khimki head coach Rimas Kurtinaitis:
“UNICS is always stronger at home than away. Take two last games with Galatasaray. This is a dangerous team with leaders like Smith and McCollum. They are stable, getting 15-20 points per game. Morgan and Tyus are good under the board. It’s not going to be easy even though we had a good game in Khimki where it worked our way. Now we are going to Kazan and expect a tough fight. Injuries are a real pain for us, we lost many players. It’s difficult, but we have to deal with it.”
