A regular season game will be held in Tallinn on Sunday.
Sunday, January 30
Kalev (Estonia) — Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (18:00 Moscow time)
Location: Estonia, Tallinn, Kalevi Spordihall
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 16 games, Lokomotiv Kuban — 14 wins, Kalev – 2 wins
Kalev: The schedule clearly does not favor the Tallinn team. A 5-game series began with games with UNICS and CSKA, in which Kalev meets only with Top-6 teams. Kalev started this mini-series unsuccessfully – at first the team lost to UNICS, and then CSKA took more than convincing revenge for a sensational loss in November, defeating Roberts Stelmachers’ squad with a 42 points difference. Even if Kalev manages to beat Loko, it will still only equal with Enisey in W/L rate, which is on the 8th place.
Lokomotiv Kuban: On January 22, Loko was supposed to play with Nizhny Novgorod, but due to the coronavirus in NN, the game was postponed. Because of this, there was a week-long pause in the schedule. However, the EuroCup game against Litkabelis on Thursday showed that the week-long rest affected only positively — Lokomotiv won with a 28 points difference. Loko look like favorites for Sunday’s game, although their squad is significantly weakened due to injuries. So, Stanton Kidd and team leader Jonathan Motley did not play in the game with Litkabelis.
Who to follow: Stanislav Ilnitskiy will be one of 3 Loko players who will participate in the United League All-Star Game (two more – Motley and Errick McCollum). Ilnitskiy celebrated this news by scoring 14 points versus Litkabelis. By the way, Andrey Martyuk, also showed himself in that game, making a double-double (11 + 10 rebounds) in just 18 minutes.
Comment:
Branko Maksimovic, Lokomotiv Kuban Acting Head Coach:
– Kalev is a very unyielding team that plays well at home. Their win over CSKA is proof of that. Their squad may be updated from season to season, but the game thought and philosophy remain unchanged – it’s fast basketball and a bet on long-range shots. Today’s roster difficulties add troubles due to injuries of some players.
