Moscow, Samara and Kazan will host 3 regular season games on Satruday.
MBA (Moscow) vs Uralmash (Yekaterinburg)
Time: 15:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall Moscow
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
MBA: Less than a week ago, the teams played in Yekaterinburg. The Moscow team led by 14 at the halftime, but lost the lead, and Uralmash literally crushed the tired guests in overtime . Now Vasily Karasev team will try to get revenge in Moscow. MBA needs to do some serious work on their mistakes – during the last game, the team made 24 turnovers. The Moscow team coach also pointed this out, noting that “in the last 5 minutes the team just wasn’t there”.
Uralmash: The game with MBA brought positive emotions, especially for Tyrell Nelson, who repeated Scott Machado’s record 13 points in overtime. Uralmash is clearly on a roll right now: with Rostislav Vergun Uralmash got 5 wins in 8 games, and beat Lokomotiv Kuban in the Russian Cup. All of their losses were on the road. However, Vergun team now looks clearly more stable and Nelson, who scored more than 20 points for the first time this season (27 is a career-high), will surely try to show that this wasn’t a one-time performance.
Samara (Samara) vs MINSK (Minsk)
Time: 17:00 (16:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Samara, SKK Dvorets Sporta.
Broadcast: League website
Samara: Samara is currently in first place in Group B with 14 wins, and now the Volga team has a great opportunity to develop and pull away from the competitors – 2 home games are ahead. The team gave the leaders to rest and sent a reserve roster to the Russian Cup game with Zenit. This is especially important considering that the Volga team has a lot of injured players right now – Samara can get wins against MINSK and Runa at home in their current shape, and the 2-week break will give a chance to heal and recover before the spring.
MINSK: The games with Samara at the first stage of the regular season were very similar. Both times Samara secured a comfortable lead, and in the final quarter, when the result was almost clear, MINSK made a little chase, not allowing the opponent to achieve a crushing score difference. It’s quite possible that the third game will follow the same scenario. Only the most optimistic fans are waiting for a win: the team lost to Avtodor by 42 points and the game itself was a reflection of all the Belarussian team problems the season. Once again, Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson mostly scored points, Grigory Motovilov and Vadzim Stubeda scored less combined, and other MINSK players didn’t have such modest achievements.
UNICS (Kazan) vs Enisey (Krasnoyarsk)
Time: 17:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Igra, League website
UNICS: The Kazan team closed out the first stage of the regular season. The team beat CSKA, now CSKA has 22 wins and 20 for UNICS. Kulagin had a great game: he made a career-high 27 points. Velimir Perasovic has every right to expect Kulagin to repeat his performance against Enisey, even though he focused more on defense and rebounding in December and January.The Kazan team is motivated as UNICS wanted revenge for their loss a month ago. Back then, the Krasnoyarsk team ended UNICS 7-game winning streak.
Enisey: The Siberian team ended the first stage with the win over Zenit, and set a team-high in wins in a season (16). Rathan-Mayes became a key player of that game and got his first double-double in the League – 17 points and 11 assists. However, Enisey coach is surely expecting his guard to score more once again as Xavier had 29 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists in the last face-to-face game. The Siberian team can beat contenders, so even though UNICS is technically the favourite, this game won’t be easy for the hosts.
