Halloween and master classes in defense and offense. United League week in review

Halloween and master classes in defense and offense. United League week in review

The most important of the United League’s life in late October and early November.

Lokomotiv take the first defeat of the season against UNICS

In the game of the week, the two teams on the move met. Both Lokomotiv and UNICS are in good shape, and that is proved by the results: before Sunday the teams suffered only one defeat for two in a month and a half of the championship.

UNICS were 13 points ahead already in the first quarter, gaining 28 points in 10 minutes. Jordan Crawford rushed to save Loko: the guard was always under the rim and scored from distance, eventually gaining 15 points by the big break.

Then Kevin Hervey took over the role of Lokomotiv’s leader – his 5 three-pointers in the second half helped Loko to come forward and establish a double-digit advantage.

As a result, Loko had their first defeat in the United League season against UNICS and beat them in the standings. At the same time, it is almost impossible to choose the best Lokomotiv’s player at the end of the Game of the Week:

– Mantas Kalnietis was one step away from the triple-double: 10 points, 14 assists and 9 rebounds;
– Alan Williams has already completed the 4th double-double in 5 games: 16 points and 13 rebounds;
– Jordan Crawford helped Lokomotiv make a 13-point comeback and finished the game with 22 points;
– 5 three-pointers of Kevin Hervey gave the hosts the advantage – the forward also scored 22 points with 8 rebounds.

CSKA set a season franchise high in scoring

In the game against Enisey, CSKA had their biggest victory of the season with 49 points advantage. CSKA scored their own record of 109 points this season. Many of the players contributed to that:

Ivan Ukhov was the brightest player of the team. The guard played his best game for CSKA, scoring 18 points with 6 assists:

Mikhail Kulagin became the most efficient player of Enisey, who had been transferred to the club from CSKA in the summer. In previous games of the season, the defender demonstrated leadership skills and proved himself in Moscow against the former team: he scored 21 points, 5 three-pointers, and made 3 rebounds.

Zenit show best defense in season

Due to the lockdown, Zenit have spent almost a month without basketball – the team played their last game 24 days ago. But Xavi Pascual’s players were ready to play against Astana: by the middle of the third quarter, Zenit’s advantage had reached 20 points – 49:29.

In 30 minutes, Zenit came off at 28 points and as a result showed not only their best defense, but also the best one among all other teams in the season – Astana managed to score only 52 points. The return of Dmitry Khvostov was good news for Zenit fans. With his first assist in his debut game of the season, the guard sent Anton Pushkov flying:

By the beginning of November, Zenit remains one of the two teams in the League that did not suffer a single defeat in the 2020/21 season. The club has already 5 victories and a confident first place in the standings.

Zielona Gora have first victory in the season

In the final game of the round, Zielona Gora hosted Tsmoki. From the very first minutes the Polish team showed their advantage and they were 16 points ahead. And the leader of Zielona Gora was Geoffrey Groselle – the center didn’t know how to miss in the first half, having scored 8 shots in a row:

But Tsmoki returned to the game in the second quarter – it was Kris Clyburn who took control of the team’s offense and scored 15 points in 10 minutes:

But as soon as Zielona Gora blocked Clyburn Jr., Tsmoki lost the score advantage once again. As a result, the Polish team celebrated their first home victory of the 2020/21 season. And the end of the game day was marked by the host guard Iffe Lundberg:

MVP

On Thursday, the League announced the name of the most valuable player in the games of September and October. It was Zenit guard Billy Baron, who helped his team gain 4 wins in 4 games:

In the interview dedicated to this title, Baron spoke about the call to the US National team, the performance under the leadership of his father and his favorite basketball players:

Billy Baron: “When I watched my brother’s games in the VTB League, I also wanted to try myself at this level”

Halloween

The day before the games, the world celebrated Halloween. The United League didn’t stand aside: Mike James turned into a vampire, Alexey Shved and Janis Timma – into Batman and Robin, Konstantin Bulanov became the Stephen King’s story main character, and Alan Williams tried himself in a role of Black Panther.

Movember

In November, the Movember campaign is held all over the world: men do not shave for a month and make donations for the study of various male diseases. “Above the rim” via Instagram showed what Mindaugas Kuzminskas would look like if he took part in the movement. Honestly, the Loko’s Lithuanian forward himself left a comment:

Team of the week

Standings