Khimki and Zenit put up show in Saint Petersburg, sold out in Perm, Pashutin returns to Loko. Week 11 in review

The most important things about this eventful week in the United League!

Karasev brightly returns to St. Petersburg, Khimki continue to win

The game of the week was held in St. Petersburg. The games between Zenit and Khimki have already become VTB United League classics, and basketball at SIBUR Arena has once again proved how unpredictable the meeting of these two teams can be.

However, the beginning didn’t look like the Game of the week: the guests created 10 points advantage after 3 minutes of the game, and during the 1st quarter they were up by 16.

But Zenit was not going to give up just like that. Joan Plaza’s team organized a chase and, by the end of the 3rd quarter, eliminated the gap, gaining 34 points in 10 minutes after a big break! Zenit relied on three pointers – and the whole team were shooting:

And this plan brought success: after one of Tim Abromaitis’ accurate three-pointers, the hosts took the lead for the first time in the game – a few minutes before the buzzer. But the last word was left to Khimki: Sergey Monia put 2 three-pointers in a row, and Sergey Karasev put an end to the game with a dunk.

Karasev successfully returned to St. Petersburg and has so far held his best game for Khimki, gaining 20 points with a high field goal percentage (9 out of 11):

And the best player of the game was Alexey Shved: by the halftime break, he was looking for triple-double, and eventually ended the game with 30 points, 13 assists and 5 rebounds.

Khimki leave St. Petersburg undefeated – the team of Rimas Kurtinaitis has 10 wins in 10 games.

Deja Vu in Krasnodar

2 years ago Lokomotiv had a bright series of 11 victories in the row in the VTB League and 26 total victories in a season. But Avtodor, led by Yevgeny Pashutin, managed to slow down Loko on its own court – Maxim Sheleketo brought the Saratov victory in the most beautiful way of all:

On Saturday, Avtodor arrived in Krasnodar for their first game under the leadership of the new coach Predrag Krunic. The teams showed their most low-scoring performance since April 2017, and the winner was determined in the end. Avtodor at “-1” carried out the last possession – and Markel Starks repeated Sheleketo’s heroic deed with the only difference being that he left the opponent a second to answer:

It should be admitted that Loko was close to incredible comeback: Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who spent his best game in Krasnodar, scored a three-pointer, but made a throw after the buzzer – and the judges canceled his hit.

The reaction of the Kuban leadership to this defeat was not long in coming: that same evening Loko announced the return of Evgeny Pashutin at the position of head coach. Recall that the specialist led the Lokomotiv-Kuban in the seasons 2012-14.

Sold out in Perm and CSKA defense

CSKA is traditionally the most unloved opponent for Perm fans, and the Sunday game was no exception: there were no tickets at the Molot box office a few days before the game. As a result, Perm broke the record for attendance of the season – 6536 spectators attended the game against CSKA:

PARMA did not let its fans down at the start of this game: Artem Zabelin made several block shots and also hammered one home, and the team itself was leading in the first quarter.

Unfortunately, the hosts couldn’t play all 40 minutes on this level. PARMA set its season-low in scoring with 70 points, and head coach Kazys Maksvytis admitted that they hadn’t played against such defense this season.

Apart from away win CSKA fans had one more thing to celebrate: forward Andrey Vorontsevich is now first on the list of games played leaders in United league. He spent his entire career in one team:

Nizhny break losing streak in Kazakhstan

After an impressive start (3 wins in 4 games) Nizhny Novgorod suffered 4 losses in a row, losing a play-off spot in standings. On the road game vs Astana wasn’t expected to be easy as Kazakhstan were one of three league’s teams (with Khimki and Loko) with 0 home defeats. Furthermore, they had to play with cut roster as foreign players Alec Brown and Chavaughn Lewis left the team, and captain Evgenii Baburin is still recovering from facial bones injury.

In the first half Astana’s fans had no reasons to worry: during the second quarter the hosts were up by 5:

But after the big break Nizhny managed to change the way the game went and took the win – first since October, 19. However, nothing is surprising: Astana is traditionally comfortable opponent for Zoran Lukic. Serbian coach won his 8th of 9 games against Kazakhstan in United league. Emil Raikovikj still cannot beat Nizhny – this is one of three teams that have never lost to Astana under Raikovikj coaching. CSKA and Khimki are the other 2 teams.

Enisey make mistake in Tallinn

At the start of the season Enisey, Nizhny and Kalev shocked all the basketball fans but now only Krasnoyarsk are still on the top of Standings. Enisey arrived in Tallinn as favourite but failed and got 3rd loss this season.

Kalev proved that they play much better at home. The team quickly reduced an 11-point gap, and by means of excellent actions by its leaders Joesaar and Kitsing they defended their homecourt. By the way, it was career-high in VTB league for Janari Joesaar: 23 points, 13 rebounds, 31 EFF points. Of course, forward couldn’t leave the court without dunk:

Enisey had chances in the end but they couldn’t guard young Sander Raieste – 20 years old forward dunked twice finishing that game.

By the way, Kalev is quite uncomfortable opponent for Enisey: Krasnoyarsk haven’t beat Tallinn since February, 2017, and this loss is already fifth in a row.

UNICS take 4th place back returning its signature defense

The first half of home game against Zielona Gora was perfect for UNICS: Kazan had a 16-point lead, scoring 50 before the half-time. During the game the hosts took the 21-point lead, lost concentration and were very close to let the Polish make the biggest comeback of the season.

In the beginning of the fourth UNICS were up by 1, and only good defense saved Kazan: in last 8 minutes of the game the Polish scored only 9 points and lost.

73 points allowed – second best result for UNICS (72 points were scored by Astana). Kazan took 4th win in last 5 games taking 4th place back.

All-VTB United league team of the week

Standings