Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg will host the regular season games on Tuesday.
Enisey (Krasnoyarsk) – MBA (Moscow)
Time: 19:30 (15:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Enisey: The Krasnoyarsk team lost the chances of getting into the Top 6 at the end of the first stage – but did not lose the chances of the playoffs. The New Year’s break helped Enisey to regain strength, and already in the first game of 2023, the Siberian team played well against CSKA. The Army team managed to get the significant lead only in the fourth quarter. However, Angelo Warner, one of the leaders of the team, was injured and Aleksander Gudumak missed the game also.
MBA: However, the Moscow team also has losses. The League newcomer will lack of Evgeniy Voronov and guard Makar Konovalov. Without 2 starting-5 players, MBA offense will not look as fast and effective, so the team will need to work especially hard in defense. However, Vasily Karasev team has repeatedly shown that almost any player can prove in a single game. Perhaps it will be Timofey Yakushin – after all, he moved to MBA from Enisey, where he played for 2 seasons. The Moscow team should remember the previous game, where, despite the win, the team made 14 fewer rebounds.
Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod) – CSKA (Moscow)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, KRC Nagorniy
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny Novgorod guaranteed the Top 6 place at least 2 weeks before the end of the first stage of the regular season. But the season doesn’t end there – now Zoran Lukic team needs to get as high as possible in the standings before the playoffs. And if it is already extremely difficult to catch up with the Top 3 teams, then MBA on the 4th place can be possible. To do this, the Volga team needs to win in almost every game, even if the opponent has not suffered a single loss in the season so far. Friday’s game in Krasnoyarsk showed that CSKA is a real danger. Therefore, Pari NN goal is to stop the opponents offense, which so far looks very effective (97.7 points on average per game). But for now, all NN players are healthy and the team had a powerful defense last month: since the last game versus CSKA in mid-November, Nizhny Novgorod let their opponents to score only 68.7 points.
CSKA: On Friday, the Army team rewritten the League history, winning 19 games in a row at the start of the season. Now CSKA has the opportunity to update the League best in wins in a row – to do this, the team need to win in Nizhny Novgorod. The Moscow team looks much stronger than Pari NN, which was evident in the first game of the teams: by the halftime, CSKA led by 25 points and won by 44. Since then, Nizhny Novgorod has noticeably improved the game, so Emil Rajkovic team should definitely be prepared. It is necessary to highlight the return of Anton Astapkovich to Nizhny: the Russian forward revealed as the leader and star of the League here and now for the first time after the summer transfer to CSKA returns to the city where he spent the previous 4 seasons.
Zenit (Saint Petersburg) – Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sibur Arena
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Zenit: The St. Petersburg team won their 3rd game in a row and left MBA far in 4th place. Zenit is gradually gaining shape and already looks much more like a team capable of defending the championship title. The main engine of the team is Thomas Heurtel, who leads the League in assists (8,8) and Zenit in points (13,3). The French guard really takes on quite a lot in offense and in defense the St. Petersburg team play great. This is also evidenced by the stats: Zenit is the best defensive team in the 2022/23 season. It was important for the reigning champion to recover after the road tour – the game with Loko will be the third this year for Zenit, which was in Minsk and Astana last week. But the St. Petersburg team needs to control the game from very start till the end, as in November in Krasnodar Zenit won the third quarter 30:5 and led by 24 points, but almost lost in the end.
Lokomotiv Kuban: Loko got into the Top 6 and made the playoffs, but continue to fight for higher place. To this end, 3 new foreign players appeared, Chris Horton and Josh Gray have already made their debut in the League. But DeVaugn Akoon-Purcell has not yet played, but apparently, he is ready to do it in St. Petersburg. A week ago, the Krasnodar team parted with the best rebounder of the team Darral Willis, but it seems that Horton is ready to take over all the work – Chris is already the best in the team in rebounds, steals and blocks. There is no doubt that the game with Zenit will be interesting – Loko intends to take revenge after a home loss in which the team almost made a 24-point comeback.
