McCollum shocks Zenit, Nizhny with Vorontsevich come back from -22, and Zielona Gora from -15. Week in review

McCollum shocks Zenit, Nizhny with Vorontsevich come back from -22, and Zielona Gora from -15. Week in review

Comebacks, clutch heroes, debuts and play-off race!

First Zenit home loss against Khimki without Shved!

No matter what problems the teams face, what rosters they have but signboard Zenit vs Khimki always have something special in it!

Khimki that suffer from roster issues recently came to Saint Petersburg with only 2 foreigners (Errick McCollum and Jordan Mickey) and without their best player, Alexey Shved didn’t play because of back injury.

Did the game of the week meet the expectations? Sure!

Firstly, recovered Alex Poythress was hammering it down with pleasure:

Secondly, in Shved’s absence Anton Ponkrashov spent more time with the ball and gave the fans some really highlight assists:

However, Errick McCollum became the main hero. Khimki’s guard, who was silent almost all game long, at first hit 2 consecutive threes and then blocked Billy Baron that decided the game! Even CJ McCollum from Portland noted brother’s game:

Khimki in cut roster without leader fought against season’s best team and made them suffer first home loss in the season! Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual admitted the defeat saying that his team made everything possible to lose:

“If you don’t deserve to win you lose. Tonight we deserved the defeat, that’s true”.

Vorontsevich debuts for Nizhny and help Volga make the biggest franchise comeback

Last week Nizhny shocked transfer market: 9-time United League champion as CSKA player Andrei Vorontsevich joined the team till the end of the season!

Russian forward, who didn’t play in the first half of the season debuted for NN well: 8 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists. “I feel good, should work on percentage and it would be fine. In terms of emotions, sure, I was nervous about the result, tried to cheer guys even from the bench. That’s the key, teammates should feel support all the time”, – Vorontsevich said after the game, he didn’t play in the United League for more than a year.

The game had unexpected story. Astana that came to Volga not as front-runners were good: they were successful at offense, and even more successful at defense. Jeremiah Hill scored 21 points in a half, and Kazakhstan gained 22-point advantage, Nizhny have never overcome such gap in history.

But everything ever happens for the first time. In a quarter Volga managed to come back and give the fans a victory, that brought them closer to the play-offs:

37 years old veteran saves Zielona Gora in the game against PARMA

Another comeback took place in Poland. Zielona Gora lost rookie Nicos Pappas who tore achilles a day before the game, thus they were the chasing team almost all game long. And Perm that wish to get in their first franchise play-offs were playing perfect: were moving the ball fast, were careful at defense and punishing the opponents for mistakes.

How Zielona Gora managed to come back from -15? Probably, Lukasz Koszarek can describe it better. 37 year old captain just took the ball in clutch and started to hit long range bombs. The first three cut the gap to -3, second evened the score, and further two shots turned the game upside down. PARMA couldn’t recover from such punch:

Even ex-teammate Iffe Lundberg noted Koszarek’s performance: “Damn somebody watched the All-Star Game yesterday huh”

Polish team fans said that even after Iffe moved to CSKA Zielona Gora still have players to win games:

And PARMA head coach Kazys Maksvytis apoligized to the fans for the defeat: “We controlled the game for three quarters, played aggressively and quick. In such moments you have to win but we weren’t following the gameplan”.

Meanwhile, Zielona Gora outpaced Loko in wins number and showed best regular season record for non-Russian teams since Lietuvos Rytas 2014:

Kalev complicate Avtodor’s life

Another play-off fighting team – Avtodor lost in Tallinn quite unexpectedly. In winter Saratov powered up the roster with Dusan Ristic and Cheick Diallo but didn’t manage to beat Kalev, fo them it’s 3rd victory in last 5 games.

Avtodor were losing, but then came back in clutch, but after Janari Joesaar’ posterizer the guests couldn’t recover:

Hardly this defeat was in Avtodor’s plans. The team fight for a play-off spot and now take 8th place outpacing PARMA in tens of percent. Saratov have games against Loko, Nizhny, Zenit, PARMA and Khimki, season leaders or straight rivals for a play-off spot.

Lundberg and Eric debut for CSKA

After a loss against Zenit by the All-Star CSKA found the rhythm beating Tsmoki. Dimitris Itoudis team proved the status of best offensive team in the League scoring 100+ points, 5th time this season!

CSKA 2 newcomers debuts to be noted. The guard Iffe Lundberg scored 10 points and impressed everyone with his 2 blocks:

Center Michael Eric also debuted brightly: 12 points, 6 boards and a two-handed slam.

Team of the week

Standings