On Sunday 5 regular season games to be held.
April 25, Sunday
Enisey (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 18:00 (14:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Sever Arena
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Enisey — 1,60, Kalev — 2,35
Enisey: The main motivation for the Krasnoyarsk team will be the opportunity to please the fans with a victory in the last home game of the season. The Siberians will no longer be able to bypass Kalev, but in case of defeat they risk letting Astana go ahead. It became known this week that Enisey has extended the contract with head coach Drazen Anzulovic, who got the opportunity to systematically prepare the team for the next season. Recall that last year the off-season training of Siberians turned out to be very crumpled due to the pandemic. The last two games Enisey were successful – the team beat Minsk and until the last resisted the future Euroleague participant UNICS.
Kalev: Tallinn residents also gained speed at the end of the season. Over the past five games, they met with the teams participating in the playoffs and won against Khimki, Nizhny and Zielona Gora. The game has no tournament significance for Kalev – even if they equal Avtodor in terms of the number of victories, the Saratov team will have an advantage in personal meetings. But “Kalev” can take revenge for the failure in the February game with Enisey: then the squad of Roberts Stelmachers could not hold center of Krasnoyarsk Dustin Hogue, who converted 10 shots from the field without a single miss.
Astana (Kazakhstan) vs Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus)
Time: 17:00 (14:00 МSK)
Venue: Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Velodrome
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Astana — 1,37, Tsmoki-Minsk — 3,10
Astana: In the penultimate game of the season, Kazakhstan, who were still playing without head coach Emil Rajkovikj, managed to break the 4-game losing streak and defeated Zielona Gora. Jeremiah Hill played almost his best game of the season with 26 points, 7 rebounds and 11 assists. The final game can give Kazakhstan fans another positive result – in case of Astana’s victory and Enisey’s loss, the Nur-Sultan team will be able to overtake the Siberians and leave the penultimate place. In any other scenario, Astana will remain twelfth.
Tsmoki-Minsk: Minsk played their first game with Astana a month ago, and although the victory remained with Kazakhstan, it did not come easily – in the last seconds Tsmoki player Kris Clyburn had excellent chances to even the score, but Astana still fought back. This time the dragons will try to take revenge – this is the only opportunity to finish the season on a positive note, breaking the streak of 13 defeats in a row.
UNICS (Russia) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 14:00 (14:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match TV
Odds by Fonbet: UNICS — 2,65, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,48
UNICS: In the central game of the week, Kazan and Loko will be able to find out among themselves who will take 2nd place in the 2020/21 season. The game promises to be all the more fundamental if we remember that the current Loko mentor Evgeny Pashutin has been coaching UNICS for many years (he was replaced as helmsman by Dimitrios Priftis in 2017). The last time Kazan beat Loko was back in March 2019. However, the UNICS management made it clear that before the EuroCup final series with Monaco, UNICS will give rest to two or three leaders of the club. The game against Lokomotiv will most likely feature a mixed roster of youth and a number of players from the base. By the way, Kazan has had a lot of positive news lately with the EuroCup: Jamar Smith, previously included in the first symbolic five of the tournament, was recognized as the MVP of the season.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: The victory over UNICS is guaranteed to bring the Kuban team to second place: they will equal the team from Kazan in terms of the number of victories, but will have an advantage due to the November victory. Then Loko managed to recoup from -13 and successfully finished the game, securing a double-digit advantage. True, of the three main characters of that meeting, only Kevin Hervey (who played a key role in Loko’s decisive breakthrough) will be able to take part in this game – Alan Williams is injured, and Jordan Crawford left the team. However, this hardly worries Evgeny Pashutin now: at the end of the season, Lokomotiv-Kuban delivered a powerful 8-game winning streak, and the victory over the army team – another competitor for a place in the top three – became a kind of “cherry on the cake”. It is interesting that at that time Loko scored even more against one of the best defensive teams of the season than before – the Belarusian dragons (103 points in the game against CSKA, 101 in the game against Tsmoki).
Khimki (Russia) vs Avtodor (Russia)
Time: 14:00 (14:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Khimki — 1,37, Avtodor — 3,10
Khimki: The Moscow team continue to fight for the sixth place. Astana played into the hands of Khimki, who managed to defeat Zielona Gora in the last game of the season for the Poles. Now, if Khimki defeat Saratov, they will bypass Zielona Gora based on the results of personal meetings. Surely, the charges of Andrey Maltsev will make every effort for this; one of the intrigues of the game is whether the Khimki coach will release Timofey Mozgov, who is being very carefully increased the playing time, on the floor. In the game with Tsmoki, the center spent 20 minutes on the floor, scoring 9 points.
Avtodor: In the first round game, Saratov, thanks to Nate Mason’s inspirational play, took a victory over Khimki – then the Moscow team was still considered one of the season’s front-runners, and this win was one of the main sensations at the start of the season. Since that moment, head coaches have changed in both teams, and Khimki has also thoroughly shaken up the roster. Now the main task of the Saratov team is to influence the final distribution of places in the top eight and win their tenth victory this season.
CSKA (Russia) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 14:00 (14:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: CSKA — 1,05, Nizhny Novgorod — 10,00
CSKA: Despite being defeated by Loko in the last round, the army team still retains a chance to take third place in the regular season. For this, two factors must coincide: Loko must lose to UNICS, and CSKA themselves must win over Nizhny. However, although CSKA will be the front-runners in the game against Nizhny, the game is unlikely to be an easy walk for the red and blue. Do not forget that at the same time CSKA is playing in the Euroleague, where it is now leading 2-0 in the series against Fenerbahce. Will Clyburn, who did not play very well with Loko, became one of the key players in the first game with the Turks – 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. And in the second game, CSKA played flawlessly in defense, not letting the opponent go beyond 70 points.
Nizhny Novgorod: Volga beat the army team for the last time in October 2015 – then Ainars Bagatskis was still in charge of Nizhny. This victory was only the second in a 24-game history of head-to-head meetings. This season CSKA also dealt with Nizhny without any problems, beating it with a margin of +20. It is interesting that at that time Volga took the second place in standings. True, that game was missed by one of the leaders of Nizhny, Anton Astapkovich, who could disperse the stalled offense of Nizhny Novgorod, who managed to score only 63 points. However, the main trump card of Zoran Lukic’s team, namely defense, did not work in the last game: Volga conceded 86 points from Kalev and practically lost their chances to rise to fourth place.
