On Monday and Tuesday 4 regular season games take place.
April 11, Sunday
CSKA (Russia) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)
Time: 13:00 (13:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: Match! Strana, TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: CSKA — 1,85, Astana — 1,95
CSKA: After the defeat to Zenit CSKA can’t win regular season for the first time since 2014. Moreover, they caught UNICS and Loko in wins number, so they even can take 4th place by the end of the season. In the next round CSKA meet one of contenders, Lokomotiv-Kuban, and this this will be key game for top-4. After a defeat against Zenit the Red-Blues recovered beating Villeurbanne. They finished Euroleague regular season on the second place via this victory, Iffe Lundberg set Euroleague season-high scoring 23 points. However, CSKA lost one of key players again, Daniel Hackett is off due to injury.
Astana: First round game between these teams were the first in the season for both teams. CSKA beat Kazakhstan easily back then. However, both previous game heroes won’t participate in this game (Nikola Milutinov and Mike James). Astana proved that thay can fight against contenders last round chasing Lokomotiv-Kuban. Anyway, making second sensation would be tough for Emil Rajkovikj, in 21-game confrontation history Astana haven’t won yet.
PARMA (Russia) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 16:30 (14:30 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: TV Start
Oddds by Fonbet: PARMA — 1,90, Победа Nizhny Novgorod — 1,90
PARMA: Taking 2 consecutive victories Perm improved their play-off chances. Avtodor’s defeat against Krasnoyarsk left no chance Saratov catch PARMA. Their only hope is that Ural lose all the games remaining, and Avtodor beat them on April 17. But PARMA’s win over Nizhny will finish Avtodor’s hope. However, it is not easy to achieve for Kazys Maksvytis’ team, Nizhny are on the rising way.
Nizhny Novgorod: Volga winning streak is now 4 games. This is the repeat of the longest streak this season, in the game against PARMA they will try to make it 5. Last week, Nizhny spent his last game in Champions League Top-16, where they lost to AEK, despite Kasey Shepherd’s performance (21+9 assists). However, this game wasn’t even crucial as Zoran Lukic won first place in the group previously.
April 12, Monday
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (19:00 МSК)
Venue: Belarus, Minsk, Minsk Arena
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 9,00, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,06
Tsmoki-Minsk: Although Tsmoki have only 2 wins this season, they have a few lost games that were good. One of these were the game against Loko in late December, Minsk were fighting till the last possession (Kris Clyburn didn’t score shooting for the win), were up by 13 at some point. It is interesting that Loko were saved by Jordan Crawford who spent one of his better games for Krasnodar (27 points). However, this time Evgeny Pashuitn have to rely on other players, Crawford left the team in January.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: On the regular season finish Lokomotiv paced up and now with 7 win in a row are the hottest team of the League. Combined with recent CSKA and UNICS’ defeats it bought up the intrigue on 2-4 seeds. It may end on the very last game of the season, The last one will be between Loko and UNICS, before that Kuban will play against CSKA. In case of CSKA’s defeat to Astana Kuban can outpace them on Monday and take 3rd spot. However, they have to beat the Belarusians. This season Evgeny Pashutin’s squad sometimes make mistakes against underdogs: for example, tight games against Astana and first game against Tsmoki.
Khimki (Russia) vs Enisey (Russia)
Time: 20:00 (20:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odd by Fonbet: Khimki — 1,44, Enisey — 2,80
Khimki: Successful March period (3 wins in 4 games, including Zenit) let Khimki breate, now they are 7th in standings with only 19 games played, while PARMA and Avtodor have 22 games played. Theoratically, Khimki may even climb and outpace Zielona Gora. However, recently the team have ben suffering from injuries. Janis Timma, according to club’s general director, won’t play for Khimki, Alexey Shved may miss the rest of the season due to broken finger, in the previous game against Mccabi team’s big Jordan Mickey was injured. From the other side, Khimki finished their Euroleague participation, it means they’ll have more time to recover and can focus on regular season ending part.
Enisey: In the game against Avtodor the Siberians broke 5-game losing streak. Although Enisey have already lost all the play-off chances Drazen Anzulovich’s team can fight for top-10 place against Kalev. Perhaps, the decisive game will be between these two teams in the season’s last round. According to Drazen Anzulovich words, against Saratov Enisey showed team chemistry, what can be proved by stats: the Siberians set team’s season-high in assists (23). By the way, the game Enisey vs Khimki was the season-opener in September. Back then Khimki beat Krasnoyarsk easily, but that time all of their key players except Shved were playing.
