On Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday 7 regular season games will take place.
December 5, Saturday
Astana (Kazakhstan) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (12:00 MSK)
Place: КKazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Velodrome
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Astana — 2,15, Nizhny Novgorod — 1,70
Astana: After a blowout from Zenit Kazakhstan recovered beating Kalev next game. This win allowed Astana fight for the 8th place. The main advantage for Emil Raikovikj squad is that they are playing at home, inside the Saryarka Velodrome Astana usually look good. Losses on the start of the season can mostly be explained that they played 5 away games out of 6 overall. From the other side, both victories were taken on the road.
Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny’s opponents are lacking game practice, the latest United League game Astana played a month ago. Novgorod’s situation isn’t much better: on November 14 they played against PARMA and then took forced pause. The game against Perm was a success, even without team’s leader Anton Astapkovich Nizhny took confident W and remained in the top-3 despite roster issues. On Saturday Nizhny will try to prolong their winning streak against Astana, it’s 6 games now and has started in January 2017.
PARMA (Russia) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 17:30 (15:30 МSК)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: PARMA — 6,60, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,11
PARMA: After a successful start Perm slowed down. The defeat against CSKA is fully understandable but losses against Nizhny and Enisey were devastating. By the way, PARMA’s rivals played with cut rosters. Loko have roster issues as well but Perm coaching staff still have to find a way to transform their game quickly, otherwise Kuban’s roster problems won’t help them.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Loko have some problems. In November there were news for Loko fans, good one and very bad one: Loko center Alan Williams became month MVP showing All-Star level… but got injured and won’t play for the rest of the season. Considering that in these two months Williams became the centerpiece of the team having incredible 22+13 stat, Evgeny Pashutin has to think of how to compensate American’s absence. Loko have qualified bigs but Kevin Hervey and Reggie Lynch can’t replace Williams in terms of skillset. However, it is a perfect opportunity for Lynch to prove himself just like Williams did it after Johnny O’Bryant left the team.
December 6, Sunday
Enisey (Russia) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 12:00 (16:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Sever Arena
Broadcast: TV Start
Enisey: First two months for Krasnoyarsk were a catastrophe: because of coronavirus the team lost the half of the starters including Drazen Anzulovich. Although it’s quite an excuse the fact is the fact, Enisey took only one win in 6 games and hold second last spot in the League. However, things still can be changed, in lost games Enisey demonstrated their potential. Even against front-runner Lokomotiv Krasnoyarsk were fighting for 3 quarters.
Zielona Gora : Zan Tabak’s squad started a little more successful than Enisey but made a sensation in last tour beating one of the contenders, UNICS. Another performance by Gabriel Lundberg (32 points vs UNICS) is what Enisey should be afraid of, their perimeter defense should be improved: they allowed 12 threes of 26 attempts against Lokomotiv although Loko isn’t even in top-10 League’s three-point percentage list. Zielona Gora will try to benefit from it.
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs CSKA (Russia)
Time: 16:00 (16:00 МSК)
Place: Belarus, Minsk, Minsk Arena
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 11,00, CSKA — 1,04
Tsmoki-Minsk: Although Belarus play at home the absolute front runners are the guests. Tsmoki average 20 points less than CSKA (75,8 against 94,9), losing to Moscow at most indicators. Throughout the confrontation history Minsk have never outclassed CSKA suffering 20th loss last December. However, it shout be recalled that that game was a tough one, they won with only 3-point advantage via Mike James accurate shots in the ending.
CSKA: Taking revenge on PARMA CSKA continued to dictate their rules to Euroleague teams. In late November CSKA beat Real in a hot game with fantastic Mike James’ game-winner. American’s efforts were noted and he became November’s MVP in that competition. December started successfully for CSKA: against Olympiacos CSKA played cold-blooded tying their hands, the Greeks only managed to score 61 points, and CSKA strengthened their leadership in Euroleague.
Zenit (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 18:00 (18:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sibur Arena
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Zenit — 1,41, UNICS — 2,90
Zenit: Petersburg continue to head the standings, as far they are the only team that haven’t lost a single game in the League. Their game in Euroleague is successful as well, Zenit took 6 victories in 9 games. However, the latest game against Fenerbahce was lost, according to Xavi Pascual it was the worst Zenit’s game in the season. At least in terms of offense, Petersburg managed to score only 65 points with average scoring at 89,3 points. The main question is will Zenit manage to recover in three days after this defeat.
UNICS: Kazan made one of the biggest sensations of the season losing in the Green Derby to underdog Zielona Gora. The bad streak continued in Eurocup where they lost to Partizan. However, just after it UNICS recovered beating Khimki and showing lockdown defense on Alexey Shved. Nevertheless, all the wins were gained at home, they still haven’t won on the road this season in the United League. In the game against Zenit Dimitrios Priftis’ squad will try to break the unpleasant tendency. Moreover, UNICS continue to power up signing Russian forward Egor Kuleshov.
December 8, Tuesday
CSKA (Russia) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 19:30 (19:30 МSК)
Place: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: TV Start
CSKA: The Red-blues continue live in tough schedule: the game against the Poles will be the third in 5 days. However, this is the only factor that may disrupt CSKA: in all other indicators CSKA are obvious favourites. Nevertheless, PARMA have already shown that it is possible to beat them on their court but hardly CSKA will do the same mistake twice.
Zielona Gora: In the confrontation history CSKA are totally dominating: they took 3 wins with average difference of 35 points. Zan Tabak can counter Bolomboy and Milutinov with Geoffrey Groselle but on Mike James and CSKA wingers the Poles have nothing to answer with. Probably, they will try to pace up in the beginning to benefit from Moscow’s fatigue but CSKA’s bench and rotation won’t let them set the rhythm.
December 9, Wednesday
Kalev (Estonia) vs Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus)
Time: 19:00 (20:00 МSК)
Place: Estonia, Tallinn, Saku Suurhall
Broadcast: TV Start
Kalev: Today Kalev are Zenit’s antipode, it is the only team that haven’t won yet in the League. Probably, the month pause was useful for Estonians, at first they had to work on their defense: in each of the defeats they allowed more than 90 points. By the way, their scoring average shouldn’t be taken into consideration, it was significantly spoiled by a technical defeat 0:20 to Loko, besides that Kalev look good in offense.
Tsmoki-Minsk: Minsk have to play at Saku Suurhall only three days after the game against CSKA, their mental and physical conditions will depend on that game’s result. However, Tsmoki and Kalev always played tight, as far Tsmoki lead 6:5 and will try not to allow Kalev even the score. The main thing is that without this victory it would be very hard for the Dragons to fight for the 8th place.
