On Friday and Saturday there will be 3 games of the regular season.
December 27, Friday
Enisey (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 19:30 (15:30 МSК)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast:League’s site
Odds by Fonbet: Enisey — 2,75, UNICS — 1,45
Enisey: In the last two rounds, the team of Drazen Anzulovic made two failures. The Siberians lost to the teams from the middle of the standings – Kalev and Nizhny Novgorod, as a result they dropped from third place to fifth. At the same time, they were outpaced by their counterpart of the Friday game – UNICS, so the game between these rivals is in a duel for fourth place. Despite the fact that the game is taking place in Krasnoyarsk, Kazan UNICS can still be considered a favorite – the last time the Siberians beat the Greens was almost three years ago, in January 2017, and the hero of that game was Vladislav Trushkin, who is currently defending Zenit colors.
UNICS: Kazan, on the contrary, is now on the rise – 4 victories in 5 games and entering the Top 16 Eurocup. Moreover, although UNICS are higher in the standings they lose to Siberians in many stats. The team of Dimitrios Priftis is one of the most low-scoring clubs of the United League, gaining only 82.6 points per game. Enisey and UNICS have similarities: their offense is very dependent on the game of leaders, whose goal should be the highlight of this game – Kazan Errick McCollum (21.4 points per game) will have to cross his swords with Davion Berry (18.8 points).
December 28, Saturday
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs CSKA (Russia)
Time: 16:00 (16:00 МSК)
Place: Belarus, Minsk, Falcon Club
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 11,00, CSKA — 1,04
Tsmoki-Minsk: After a long series of failures, the Dragons gradually begin to spread their wings. First, there was a debut victory took place this season, then in a dramatic ending Tsmoki lost to Zielona Gora, and in the last round Minsk took a second victory over Parma. However, this time they have to face an opponent of a different caliber. CSKA has already gained momentum and copes with the teams from the bottom of the table without much effort.
CSKA: Red-blues just won their largest win of the season, beating Kalev with a difference of 41 points. At the moment, they has 19 wins in 19 games with the Dragons, so already in this round CSKA can celebrate a kind of anniversary. The teams have already met this season, and there Tsmoki-Minsk were unable to oppose anything to the pressure of CSKA – they were defeated with a gap of 33 points. The main factor that they can count on is CSKA’s fatigue after the Euroleague Friday game with Milan, which, incidentally, is led by former CSKA coach Ettore Messina. However, the game will take place not in Moscow, but much closer to Minsk – in Kaliningrad, so the team of Dimitris Itoudis will have time to recover.
Zielona Gora (Poland) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 18:00 (20:00 МSК)
Place: Poland, Zielona Gora, CRS Hala Zielona Góra
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Zielona Gora — 4,00, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,25
Zielona Gora: In the past round, both rivals had to give it all: both the Poles and the Kuban had a chance to play in very intense games with hot endings. But if Lokomotiv managed to break the resistance of Khimki, then Zielona Gora on the last seconds lost to Astana. The defensive system of Zan Tabak faltered under the pressure of James Florence but Lokomotiv has a richer set of individually skilled players – Zielona Gora felt this on themselves just a month ago, and were defeated by Kuban with a difference of 22 points.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: they are traveling to Poland in a good mood – Loko were the first team to put a barrier in the way of Khimki. Thanks to this win, Kuban again entered the top three, being at the distance of one victory from CSKA. It is curious that in the game with Khimki Krasnodar made half as many attempts to score three pointers as their counterparts – 20 versus 41. However, although the three-pointer is not the strongest side of Lokomotiv, this situation can be partially corrected by the return of Vitaliy Fridzon – the Loko management announced the comeback of the guard after the injury in Zielona Gora.
