Zenit will host CSKA Game to the Week.
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sibur Arena
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Igra, League website
Rivalry
Zenit against CSKA! The rivalry between the two famous brands reached a new level last season: the teams had an incredible final series and the winner was known only in the seventh game. Zenit won the League title for the first time in history and CSKA lost in the playoff series for the first time in history.
The rivalry continued this fall. CSKA and Zenit reached the SuperCup final, where the ending was really dramatic. 9.2 seconds before the end,Zenir took a timeout after trailing by 2 and they decided to shoot for the win. Thomas Wimbush scored a three-pointer over Livio Jean-Charles and left the Army team with only 2 seconds to reply. However, the Moscow team could not even make a shot – the most experienced Trey Tompkins guessed the opponents combination and stole the ball.
In total, within the United League, the teams have played 31 games since 2014, 19 were won by CSKA.
Offseason work
This offseason, CSKA changed the head coach for the first time in 8 years: Emil Rajkovic took the place of Dimitris Itoudis. There were other changes: Anton Astapkovich and Artem Komolov returned to the club, Dejan Davidovac moved from Crvena Zvezda, Livio Jean-Charles moved from Olympiacos and Samson Ruzhentsev, a young Russian, moved from Mega. The Army team saved last season key players, which was extremely important for the new head coach. Also, just before the start of the season, CSKA signed short-term contracts with Dallas Moore and Andrey Desyatnikov. After a confident win over MBA, the Army team made a guaranteed agreement with the American guard until the end of the season.
As for Zenit, the changes were global. 8 newcomers with big names came to the club. For example, Trey Tompkins who played in Nizhny Novgorod in 2014, after he signed a deal with Real Madrid, where he played the last 7 seasons. Or Thomas Heurtel. The St. Petersburg team signed him just before the start of the SuperCup in September. The French national team guard came to his new club Eurobasket 2022 silver medal. Thomas Wimbush was already mentioned above and he has already managed to win his first award in Zenit – the SuperCup 2022 MVP.
Season start
CSKA is the League leader with 6 wins in 6 games. Moreover, the Army team won each of the games with a double-digit difference at least . The minimum lead was in the opening game of the season against Samara – by 13 points. On season average, CSKA defeats rivals with a difference of 28.7 points.
However, most of the opponents of the Moscow team were not from the top of the standings. For the same Samara, the game with CSKA was generally the first in the League, MINSK and Enisey got one win for two in a month and Loko seriously renewed the roster and was in 9th place before the start of this round.
But Zenit did not have everything so smoothly in October. In the first game, the reigning champion lost to UNICS at home and then only in the last minutes escaped from the loss to PARMA-PARI in Perm. The progressing Samara also created big problems for the St. Petersburg team: the Volga team had the lead for a long time, but Zenit won the fourth quarter 23-8 and took the win. Nevertheless, Xavi Pascual team gradually managed with the crisis and returned to the Top 3 in the standings, going by UNICS and CSKA.
Injuries
Only the first month of the new season has passed, but both of last year finalists have already had losses. CSKA has only one player injured, but seriously: Semen Antonov injured his achilles against Avtodor and was forced to undergo surgery, being out,
Zenit, on the other hand, has problems with four front court players – Richard Solomon, Andrey Zubkov, Artem Klimenko and Sergey Toropov. In this regard, a young Egor Ryzhov appeared at the start of the game with MINSK, and then veteran Sergey Monia, who returned to the team, made his debut in the season.
However, the St. Petersburg team do not report the injury status, so there is a possibility that one of these players may play this Tuesday versus CSKA.
Numbers and leaders
CSKA is in first place in points per game (98.3 points), shooting percentage (54.7%), assists (24.5), rebounds (39.7) and turnovers (11.3). Zenit is second in assists (22.5), fourth in points per game (83.0) and shooting percentage (46.8%), third in turnovers (13.8).
As for players stats, then we should highlight Alexey Shved – the guard is fourth in the best scorers list of the season with 16.7 points per game. CSKA center Nikola Milutinov is the third in rebounds (7.7) and the best in the League in shooting percentage (73.5%).
Zenit guard Thomas Heurtel is second in the League in assists (7,8). Richard Solomon closes the Top-10 rebounders (6,4).
It is especially worth noting the shooters of the teams. CSKA has 7 players scoring 40% or more of their three-point shots: Astapkovic (66.7%), Ruzhentsev (61.5), Moore (47.8%), Davidovac (45.0%), Komolov (43.8%), Shved (41.4%) and Ware (40.0%). Zenit has four (except for Monia, who played only 1 game – he has 100%): Volkhin (64.7%), Tompkins (52.2%), Karasev (50%) and Homesley (40.5%).
No one from CSKA and Zenit has more than 23 minutes on the floor. Leaders in playing time: Toropov (22.4 minutes), Tompkins (22.1 minutes) and Shved (21.7 minutes).
