Moscow and St. Petersburg will host regular season games on Tuesday.
MBA (Moscow) – Uralmash (Yekaterinburg)
Time: 19:30 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
MBA: The schedule helped MBA a little bit to overcome the starting problems. A long home games streak (6 of 7 are games at home) is helping Vasily Karasev team. The team has won 4 of the last 6 games, and the Moscow team made more than 100 points for the first time this season versus Astana. Another achievement is 2 wins in a row. However, the team beat MINSK and Nizhny, but now the Moscow team will face a more serious opponent. In any case, Vasily Karasev seems to have succeeded in getting MBA offense working: in the last 4 games the Moscow team has consistently scored 80 or more points, and not depending on whether the leader game. For example, Khomenko and Minchenko were the main heroes against MINSK, Barashkov and Lopatin duo played brilliantly against Nizhny (Lopatin, by the way, was included in the Team of the Round for his performance).
Uralmash: A tough win over MINSK can’t hide troubles (3 losses in 4 games). Only Octavius Ellis and Garrett Nevels are steadily scoring points, Josh Perkins has only played 1 good game since the beginning of the season against CSKA. This shows that Uralmash and MBA are now tied in the standings. The main problem for Uralmash is a very poor three-point percentage and third from the bottom in the League. Only in the games against MINSK and Nizhniy, the Yekaterinburg team team demonstrate high shooting percentage and won. But Milos Pavicevic team had nothing to counter against three-pointers by Samara. MBA looks much stronger in this regard – the Moscow team is in the Top 6 in three-point percentage.
Zenit (St. Petersburg) – Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod)
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, St. Petersburg, CSC Arena
Broadcast: Match! Igra, Start Triumph, League website
Zenit: Despite all the difficulties with the roster, Zenit solved the early season problems. 3 straight wins with 20 or more points have helped Zenit to chase with UNICS and CSKA. And Enisey win in Kazan returned Zenit to its usual place in the Top 3. Nizhny is one of the most convenient options to continue the winning streak: the team is also drained in injuries, but Zenit roster is much deeper. By the way, the game against MINSK had a curious achievement – Sergey Karasev moved to the top spot in the team’s history in games played (230).
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: The Volga team has fallen and it will be very difficult to get out of it. With 7 straight losses, Zoran Lukic team is now ahead of only Avtodor and MINSK, and an extremely having difficult schedule ahead. Nizhny will face Zenit, CSKA and UNICS in the next 4 games, and only a game with MINSK could be a brief relief (and Nizhny is far from guaranteed a win). At the moment, Nizhny Novgorod Achilles’ heel is rebounding (12th in the League) and defending three-point line. Perhaps even Lukic himself isn’t quite sure how Nizhny Novgorod will guard Vince Hunter and Bojan Dublevic, who could make the performance of the month in such an environment.
