All the most important events from the United League in the last week before the Match of the Stars 2022.
The 1st triple-double in 4 seasons in the League by Astana player.
One of the most interesting games of the week took place in Kazakhstan capital.
Astana won the 1st game in 4 months – Lokomotiv Kuban, which arrived with Jaylen Barford in the roster, was defeated.
Barford performed well in the 1st half, scoring 8 points, but did not help his new team in the ending. Darius Thompson did not help either: 6 seconds before the buzzer, Loko guard had an opportunity to equal the score while loosing by 3 – and did not score a single one, depriving his team of the last hope of salvation.
The Nur-Sultan team has been an impregnable fortress for Loko in recent years – the last win over Astana in Kazakhstan was in the 2018/19 season.
But even the sensational result does not seem so significant against Anthony Hickey performance. Astana leader scored the first triple-double in the United League for 4 seasons, finishing the game with 43 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds! The American guard became the 7th player in the United League history to make a triple-double, and the 1st to score more than 20 points.
In addition, 43 points in the game with Loko is a new season best and the 2nd best in the history of the League! Hickey also set another record, scoring 17 shots from the game.
Astana has updated the team’s best for 3-pointers this seson, having shot 15 shots. All 15 three-pointers were scored either by Anthony Hickey himself, or after his assists.
The Nur-Sultan team ended a 7-game losses streak and returned to the race for the playoffs: the Kazakh team is separated by 1 win from Enisey.
Tsmoki made the biggest comeback in the League history
An equally historic game took place in Minsk, where Tsmoki hosted Enisey.
The Minsk team, who had not been on the floor for 53 days due to postponements, clearly lacked playing tone. After all, how else to explain loosing by 27 points at the start of the 2nd quarter against direct competitor for the playoffs spot?
By the end of the 1st half, Tsmoki trailed by 23 points – 24:47, but it is unlikely that the local fans were very pleased. During the halftime, the Belarusian team had a serious conversation with the coach – Tsmoki left the locker room only 3 minutes before the start of the 3rd quarter.
No one knows what the coaches and players were talking about, but it worked: Tsmoki players started chasing Enisey and 3 minutes before the end was ahead – for the first time in the game. Having gained the lead, Tsmoki did not give up their own and celebrated their first win in 2022.
Now 27 points is the largest gap in the VTB League history that one of the teams has ever managed to come back from. Tsmoki made the history and left the last place in the standings.
And De’Quon Lake made a bright debut for his new team: 12 points, 5 rebounds and a poster that sent him to the Top-1 of the Top Plays of the Week!
.@dequonlake debuted in the League with POSTER 😱 pic.twitter.com/o0t4oxpZGT
— VTB League (@VTBUL) February 10, 2022
John Brown III helped UNICS to reach team’s season high of 3-pointers.
Both UNICS and Enisey approached the game in Kazan not in the most optimal conditions. The Kazan team played the 3rd game in 7 days – and this is with the 3 OT game with CSKA. The Krasnoyarsk team arrived in Tatarstan after a difficult game in Minsk, in which they lost a 27-point lead, and even Drazen Anzulovic.
But there was no noticeable fatigue at the game. The opposite things happened: after 1st quarter, the teams scored 59 points in total and UNICS generally set the team’s record season high in points scored in the 1st quarter – 36 points!
The Kazan team were not going to slow down and by the halftime they had created a comfortable 15-point lead – 59:44. At the same time, 59 points in 20 minutes is a season high in the United League.
As a result, the League’s leader got the win, retaining the 1st place in the standings. UNICS also updated its high for 3-pointers this season, making 16 long-range shots.
UNICS were so good from the field that day that even John Brown III scored his first 3-pointer! UNICS captain scored 3 out of 3 from 3-point line and became the best scoring player in this game – 25 points, a repeat of career high in the United League!
Marcel Ponitka helped PARMA to win over Kalev.
PARMA-PARIMATCH and Kalev was incredibly tense – the leader changed 17 times! At the same time, both teams played defensively and did not allow to score a lot.
In the end, Kalev got the advantage – Donovan Jackson scored 14 points in the 4th quarter! But the Perm team managed to turn the tide of the game in the last minutes with really good defense: the guests lost the ball 3 times in the most important part of the game.
Marcel Ponitka scored the final bucket from 7 meters:
With Loko loss in Kazakhstan, PARMA has strengthened on the 5th place in the standings and will start the spring in the Top-5 with any outcome of the remaining February games.
CSKA reached 30 thousand points scored
For the Army team, the game with Astana was quite easy: by the halftime, Dimitris Itoudis squad had already come off by 14 points.
The Kazakh team was not saved even by Anthony Hickey, who became the best in Astana in points (26), rebounds (6), steals (2) and efficiency (23).
Having scored 84 points to Astana, CSKA reached 30 thousand points scored for the entire time in the United League. The Army team became the 1st team with such an achievement in the League.
Surprisingly, even after the win over Astana, CSKA failed to return to the Top-3, remaining in 4th place in the standings.
Shot of the week
“The best defense is a good offense”
Zenit showed the best defense of the season
Like CSKA, Zenit achieved a fairly easy win in their game, convincingly beat Zielona Gora. The St. Petersburg team got a major lead already in the starting quarter with Jordan Lloyd help: the guard started the game with 4 3-pointers in a row!
🎯 @mrjloyd hits 4️⃣ straight threes in 1st quarter vs Zielona Gora! pic.twitter.com/enrQFknljt
— VTB League (@VTBUL) February 14, 2022
As a result, Zenit allowed Zielona Gora to score only 52 points – this became the 2nd best defensive result of Xavi Pascual’s team in the United League. Zenit let opponents score less only twice – in the 2016/17 season from VEF (51) and last season from Kalev (51).
The list of players, who will participate at the All-Star Game 2022 competitions was revealed
Last week, the League announced all the participants of the Olimpbet 3-point Contest and VTB Capital Investments Slam-Dunk Contest.
Andrey Vorontsevich and Mario Hezonja from UNICS, Billy Baron from Zenit and Pavel Sergeev from Avtodor will compete for the best sniper title.
Mario Hezonja, Alex Poythress, Kamari Murphy from Kalev and Jaron Jackson from Avtodor will participate in the Dunk Contest.
Team of the Week
Anthony Hickey scored the 1st triple-double in 4 seasons in the United League.
Angelo Warner helped Tsmoki to make the biggest comeback in the history of the League.
Jordan Loyd was a key player in Zenit’s win over Zielona Gora.
Adas Juskevicius led PARMA-PARIMATCH to win over Kalev.
John Brown III repeated the career high and scored the 1st 3-pointers in the League.
Top-10 Plays of the Week
