On Saturday, Sunday and Monday 5 regular season games will take place.
December 12, Saturday
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs PARMA (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (15:00 МSК)
Place: Belarus, Minsk, Falcon club
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 1,83, PARMA — 1,97
Tsmoki-Minsk: After the game against Kalev the Dragons’ losing streak reached 5 games. However, Belarus fans still have reasons to be optimistic. The first one is Artsiom Parakhouski’s transfer, he had already played against Tallinn. Although he didn’t practice with his team a lot, Parakhouski showed that he can be a Joker in the team: in 14 minutes on the court he scored 11 points and 6 rebounds, 3 of them in offense. Rebounding is not PARMA’s strong suit, thus Belarussian giant may cause lots of problems for Ural.
PARMA: Nevertheless, in latest games Perm showed that they can play against teams with strong centers. Although PARMA completely lost the boards to Lokomotiv (33 vs 46), they managed to beat the front runner via backcourt, where Adas Juskevicius was on fire – Nevertheless, in latest games Perm showed that they can play against teams with strong centers. Although PARMA completely lost the boards to Lokomotiv (33 vs 46), they managed to beat the front runner via backcourt, where the Lithuanian scored 33 points. Historically, PARMA aren’t good vs Minsk, they have only 2 wins in 7-game confrontation history, the latest was gained more than 2 years ago. However, this time Perm are considered front runners, victory over contender has to give them confidence.
UNICS (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 18:00 (18:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: UNICS — 1,11, Kalev — 6,60
UNICS: Kazan continue to swing between successful games with clearly unsuccessful ones. After a brilliant victory over Khimki, UNICS lost to Zenit, leading 19 points during the game, but managed to score only 24 points in the second half. The efficiency of the offence is still one of the main problems that Dimitrios Priftis needs to solve: of all the teams in the top eight, only PARMA scores less than UNICS (81.7 points). In the EuroCup game against the French Bourg Kazan also failed to score more than 80 points, but this time their defense worked well: pinning down the French offense, UNICS won, due to the brilliant performance of Isaiah Canaan (33 points), and remained the second place in their group.
Kalev: They finally managed to lift the curse – last week they defeated Tsmoki-Minsk, and now there are no teams without a win in the United League. Janari Joesaar, who returned to the team, played the most important role in Kalev’s debut win – the participant of the 2019 All-Star Game in 25 minutes on the court stopped on the verge of a double-double (19 + 8 rebounds). Joesaar has to transform Kalev’s offense by adding dynamism and athleticism. That is true that in last year’s landmark victory of Kalev over UNICS, defense played the first violin – in that game Kalev allowed Kazan to score only 64 points. Most likely, this time Tallinn will try to play as strictly as possible in defense.
Sunday, December 13
Avtodor (Russia) vs Enisey (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (14:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Saratov, Crystal SP
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Avtodor — 1,16, Enisey — 5,25
Avtodor: After a not very successful start, they have transformed, and made a 4-game winning streak, and the giants – Khimki and Lokomotiv – became victims of Avtodor. Thanks to this, they have secured a foothold in the top four and will certainly try to extend their streak, beating Enisey, which is at the bottom of the table. Avtodor surpasses the Siberians in most indicators, and first of all – in rebounding: Saratov occupies the second place in the League (39.8), and if we take offensive rebounds – then the first, while Enisey closes the top ten. The home nature of the game will also be an important factor: at the home arena, Avtodor has so far lost only to CSKA.
Enisey: The victory over PARMA was supposed to cheer up the Siberians, but after that they suffered two major defeats – from Lokomotiv and Zielona Gora. They are still experiencing serious roster problems, especially in the back line, which noticeably affects their offence: with 74 points on average per game, Enisey is at last place in the League. The signing of Jordan Matthews is intended to correct this situation: the American guard played for the Italian Cremona last season, where he averaged 10 points per game. The American spent the beginning of this season without a team, so we should not immediately expect miracles of performance from him, but at least he should unload Mikhail Kulagin in terms of scoring.
Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia) vs Zenit (Russia)
Time: 16:00 (16:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,97, Zenit — 1,83
Lokomotiv-Kuban: In the central game of the week, Krasnodar will try to give the first defeat of the season to Zenit. However, this will not be easy. In the last three games, Loko lost twice and, after being defeated by PARMA, moved from the top three to the fifth position. Obviously, their coaching staff will have to puzzle over how to compensate for team leader Alan Williams, who is out until the end of the season. In the duel with PARMA, Loko’s new main center Reggie Lynch played useful (10 + 8 rebounds), but this is not yet comparable to the performances of Williams, who still tops the list of the League’s scorers. But in the game against Andorra in the EuroCup another “big” made a shot – Kevin Hervey, who was noted for his performance like the Williams (23 points and 13 rebounds), thanks to which Loko beat the Spaniards 106: 100.
Zenit: They are still on top – in the game with UNICS they repeated their record from the 2015/16 season (7 wins in a row at the start of the championship) and are now determined to surpass it. The main hero of the game against Kazan was the Polish forward Mateusz Ponitka – it is interesting that he spent his debut season in the United League with Lokomotiv-Kuban. True, he has not yet been able to defeat his former team defending Zenit’s colors, however, he has played against Loko only one game so far. But in the Euroleague Zenit this week performed unsuccessfully, losing on the road to Real. This game was the third for them in six days, so Lokomotiv will try to take advantage of Zenit’s fatigue.
December 14, Monday
Zielona Gora (Poland) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)
Time: 19:00 (21:00 МSК)
Place: Poland, Zielona Gora, CRS Hala Zielona Góra
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Zielona Gora — 1,41, Astana — 2,93
Zielona Gora: The squad of Zan Tabak performed successfully in November and early December – 3 wins in 4 games, which allowed them to return to the race for getting into the playoffs after starting failures. However, just two days after a major victory over Enisey tired Poles could not hold back the pressure of the CSKA, losing being down by 32. Now Zielona Gora will have to fight with a direct competitor – Astana is one line lower in the table. So far, the Poles have not been able to defeat Astana in face-to-face confrontations – 4 defeats in 4 games. However, now it is Zielona Gora that is showing more confident game and can be considered a nominal front runner.
Astana: After a sensational victory over Khimki, Emil Raikovikj’s team entered a losing streak, which was briefly interrupted by success in the game with Kalev. But immediately after that, Astana lost to Nizhny and again moved away from the Cup eight. It is interesting that both of their victories this season Astana won on the road. Although it is unlikely that at the moment someone can draw any conclusions from this – at home, they played only two games out of seven. The main task for Astana will be to contain the dispersed Iffe Lundberg – with 20 points per game, the Dane is the third in the list of the League’s top scorers. No one stands out so clearly in Astana: the top scorer player of the team, Michael Thompson, is gaining 14.1 points per game.
