Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Minsk and Krasnodar will host regular season games on Wednesday.
Enisey (Krasnoyarsk) vs Astana (Astana)
Time: 19:30 (15:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Enisey: The Siberian team failed to beat UNICS and lost the place in the Top 3. Despite this, Jovica Arsic team continues to feel very confident. In Kazan, Xavier Rathan-Mayes delivered another performance (36 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists), getting close to making 30 points per game. Octavius Ellis, the closest pursuer of Enisey guard, has almost 10 points less per game. As a result, Rathan-Mayes was in the Team of the Round once again, even though his efforts didn’t help the Siberian team win.
Astana: In the entire 20-game rivalry history, the Kazakh team has won in Krasnoyarsk only twice – in the very first game of these teams in 2014, and also in 2020 with Emil Rajkovic. Astana players has an underdog status now. After good games against strong Loko and Uralmash, Oleg Kiselev team has slowed down a bit: the win over MINSK was very difficult, followed by a 18-point loss to PARMA. The team has won only once on the road. At the same time, Astana has never been able to score more than 78 points on the road.
Samara (Samara) vs PARMA (Perm)
Time: 19:00 (18:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Samara, SKK Dvorets Sporta
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Samara: 3 consecutive losses did not demotivate Drazen Anzulovic team. Samara took advantage of an opportunity to improve their league standing against Nizhny, and then with 14 of 25 threes outlasted Uralmash on the road. The Volga team continue to strengthen the status of the most three-point scoring Leauge team with 43.6%. In fact, Samara is the only team in the United League to shoot above 40%. Considering that PARMA is quite vulnerable to three-point shooting, this could be a big factor for the hosts.
PARMA: Evgeny Pashutin team broke ended losing streak with a win over Astana, and the head coach was clearly happy with his team after the game. Pashutin emphasized one of the main reasons for the win – dominance. PARMA has no problems with rebounding at all, leading the League with 40.5 rebounds per game. The Perm team didn’t leave Astana any chance at all – 47 vs. 24 rebounds. This could be a serious test for Samara: the Volga team is third from the bottom in rebounding, and their only rebounder is James Thompson, while PARMA has a good rebounding team. Richard Solomon, Ruslan Abdulbasirov, and Stanislav Ilnitskiy are good at it. In the game against Astana, only this trio had 29 rebounds.
MINSK (Minsk) vs Avtodor (Saratov)
Time: 19:30 (Moscow time)
Place: Belarus, Minsk, Minsk Arena
Broadcast: Start Triumph, League website
MINSK: If there’s an opportunity for MINSK to finally pick up their first win of the season, it’s in a game against the team neighboring team. In reality, Avtodor is superior to the Minsk team in almost all key stats and can be considered the favorite. After the game with Zenit, Rostislav Vergun said that it was the best home game in quality, discipline and energy. It’s quite characteristic that it was said after the game, in which Minsk lost by 22 points. Still, the coach really had something to praise his players for: in the first half MINSK didn’t let the opponent go far, and only towards the end of the game Zenit superiority became obvious. This could be a good sign for MINSK, as the Belarusian team has looked much more confident on the road.
Avtodor: After 2 consecutive Volga derby wins, it might have seemed that things were looking good for the Saratov team. But in the last 2 games, Avtodor’ offensive problems were again evident. After the club parted ways with Kyle Vinales, the offense expectedly struggled: Vinales was a strong offensive player and the ability to score points simply because of his talent, even when the team isn’t doing well. The situation with Sindarius Thornwell, who did not play in the games against Loko and Zenit, is also unclear. As a result, Avtodor lost badly in both games, both times failing to score more than 65 points. So MINSK chances of winning are not so far.
Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar) vs Runa (Moscow)
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
Lokomotiv Kuban: After defeating CSKA, Loko didn’t stop and beat Avtodor. Although the game was generally equal in the first half, the Krasnodar team wide rotation played a role, allowing to maintain a high pace throughout the game. Loko guard Aleksandr Scherbenev noted that Avtodor simply couldn’t play at such a high pace for the entire game. Apparently, Aleksandar Sekulic drew far-reaching conclusions from Astana game, when Loko simply turned off in the third quarter. DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell is clearly in top shape: he scored 22 points with a high field-goal percentage 2 games in a row.
Runa: The Moscow team had some unusual results in November. After the sensation in Kazan, where the Vikings outplayed UNICS, the team lost twice in a row at home. And while the game with CSKA had struggling, Erturul Erdogan team lost to Enisey. By the way, Runa bench has not been scoring a lot – 17 points against Enisey, 20 against CSKA. Although the Vikings have achieved most of their wins during the season with the rotation momentum. If Runa offense will fail again in the second half due to a tight rotation, as it was against Enisey, the hosts will surely take advantage of it.
