This Saturday and Sunday five regular season games will take place.
December 14, Saturday
Avtodor (Russia) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (16:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Saratov, Crystal SP
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Avtodor’s win — 1,65, Nizhny Novgorod’s win — 2,25
Avtodor: Predrag Krunic’s debut as a head coach was a success – in dramatic clutch Saratov snatched the victory from Loko on the road. Via 3 wins of last 5 games Avtodor’s position in standings became better – they are one win away from the play-off zone. The hosts will probably bet on their frontcourt led by Isaiah Hicks and Mouhammadou Jaiteh: If Avtodor is the best rebounding team in the league (40,5 per game) then Nizhny is the worst (31,4), thus Predrag Krunic’s squad may face no trouble in winning the rebound.
Nizhny Novgorod: Beating Astana in the last round Nizhny broke the four game losing streak. It’s interesting that just signed to Zoran Lukic’s team Michael Jenkins had played for Astana in previous season: he was averaging 13,7 points and 3,3 assists. This sign is aimed to power up team’s offense while Evgenii Baburin return is aimed to power up defense: just recovered from the injury, the captain made an effort to win over Tenerife in Eurocup.
Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia) vs PARMA (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Lokomotiv-Kuban’s win — 1,10, PARMA’s win — 7,00
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Three losses in last five games made Lokomotiv announce new head coach, and he is Evgeny Pashutin, who is so familiar to Krasnodar fans. Under his coaching Loko achieved one of the most meaningful successes in its history – in 2013 they won Eurocup. It is symbolic that Pashutin had a debut as Lokomotiv’s leader in Eurocup beating Serbian Partizan.
PARMA: Ural still don’t have wins over Loko – 6 losses in 6 games. However, now PARMA will try to break the rules. This season Ural met with 4 teams from “Big 5”, and only CSKA managed to beat Kazys Maksvytis’ squad confidently: Zenit lost lo PARMA, and UNICS and Khimki snatched victories in clutch. Considering that Evgeny Pashutin is only trying to settle in Loko, PARMA will try to take benefit from organizational confusion of their rival, that usually occurs in such situations.
December 15, Sunday
CSKA (Russia) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)
Time: 13:00 (13:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: CSKA’s win — 1,03, Astana’s win — 12,50
CSKA: Moscow failed in away game in Euroleague vs Maccabi: the Red-blues lost, and scored only 28 points in the second half. CSKA allowed 90 points, it’s really big numbers for them. In game with Astana CSKA will try to recover from this loss. Even significantly powered up Kazakhstan is still a traditionally comfortable opponent for CSKA: 18 times CSKA defeated Astana in 18 games, by the way the differential between allowed and scored points is huge – on average CSKA score 25 points more than their rivals.
Astana: A few weeks ago Emil Raikovikj’s team was a top-3 team but three consecutive defeats threw Astana to the bottom of standings. Before the game it turned out that Isaiah Whitehead left Kazakhstan, and he showed his level in thriller-game against Zenit. Experienced guard that had played for different European teams James Florence is supposed to replace the American. It’s interesting that in previous season, which is best for Astana in its history, Kazakhstan couldn’t show any resistance to CSKA, losing to CSKA both times with big differential. By the way, in both cases two CSKA centers hit the rarest threes – Othello Hunter and Kyle Hines.
Khimki (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 14:00 (14:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match! Arena
Odds by Fonbet: Khimki’s win — 1,05, Kalev’s win — 10,0
Khimki: They are still the undisputed leader of the regular season, and passed the 10-match distance without a single defeat. Khimki also play well in the Euroleague – on Thursday, Rimas Kurtinaitis’ team got an important victory over the German Alba, showing their best Euroleague scoring this season – 104 points. In the game with the Germans, Janis Timma was absent, which gave space for action to Devin Booker – the center held one of the most brilliant game this season, with 24 points and 10 rebounds. It will not be easy for Kalev to guard such a Booker, especially since the defence of the paint is not the strongest element in their game.
Kalev: In the last round, Kalev performed powerfully, defeating the main sensation of the beginning of the season – Enisey. Thanks to this bright victory, they managed to strengthen their position in the play-off zone. However, now they are facing a rival of a different caliber. This season the teams have already met – in September, and then Khimki outplayed them without any problems, allowing them to score only 63 points. True, it is worth mentioning that at that time Kalev played with a very shortened roster: only one foreign player of the team – Aigars Skele, the Latvian, managed to play against Khimki. After that, Kalev transformed and snatched victories from such powerful opponents as UNICS and Zenit.
Zielona Gora (Poland) vs Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus)
Time: 18:00 (20:00 МSК)
Place: Poland, Zielona Gora, CRS Hala Zielona Góra
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Zielona Gora’s win — 1,40, Tsmoki-Minsk’s win — 2,95
Zielona Gora: The last two games they played on the road against obvious favorites and lost in both (Lokomotiv and UNICS). What is interesting, while they are playing away, they are playing better – they gained two victories away against one at home, and they allow much less outside their own court – 85.2 points versus 94.7. Both teams do not play the most sharp-offensive basketball: Zielona Gora scores on average the least points in the League (79.0), Tsmoki are on 11th place (80.5). Therefore, it is unlikely that a game will be highscoring.
Tsmoki Minsk: In the last round, Tsmoki finally managed to win their debut victory this season – Kalev was defeated on the road, and the second quarter of this game can be considered one of the best performed by Dragons: they allowed Kalev to score only 7 points in 10 minutes. If Tsmoki will be able to demonstrate defense of the same level against Zielona Gora , then they have the right to count on a second away victory in a row. Finally, Robert Lowery, who became the key option at offense of the team, also fit into the roster – it was he who turned out to be the hero of the meeting in the game with Kalev, scoring 20 points and making 6 assists.
