On February 7-13 there will be 12 regular season games.
February 7, Sunday
CSKA (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 14:00 (14:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Moscow, USC CSKA
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: CSKA «-20.5» — 1,85, Kalev «+20.5» — 1,95
CSKA: February starts unsuccessfully for CSKA: they took only 1 victory in 3 games (against Zalgiris). In their last game against Valencia in Euroleague CSKA lost. The game was exhausting: fighting with cut roster CSKA forced double overtime and lost 2 points despite Mike James’ record 37 points. The game against Kalev CSKA will hold with cut roster as well, besides earlier injured players Nikola Milutinov and Tornike Shegnelia will miss the game.
Kalev: Despite lots of injuries CSKA are still front-runners in this game. Kalev chance is to use CSKA fatigue after a tight game against Spaniards. Kalev probably will try to take the paint under control with the help of Maurice Kemp (7,4 rebounds per game).
Avtodor (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (16:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Saratov, Crystal SP
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Avtodor — 3,10, UNICS — 1,37
Avtodor: Last month Saratov visited Kazan and couldn’t do anything with UNICS losing 29 points. However, now Avtodor are on the rise after January bad streak, Saratov ended the month with a confident victory over Astana. By the way, Avtodor came back from -17. The main news for the fans is signing Mali big Cheick Diallo from Phoenix, he has 187 games spent in the NBA.
UNICS: Kazan are still one of the hottest League teams in new year. 6-game winning streak in the League was added with successful game in EuroCup, this week UNICS beat Mornar Bar and qualified for the quarter finals. Jamar Smith spent a terrific month and was named January MVP in the United League. By the way, it was win over Avtodor that started Kazan good streak, via this UNICS got higher in the standings and fight for the second spot with CSKA.
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs Zenit (Russia)
Time: 16:00 (16:00 МSК)
Venue: Belarus, Minsk, Minsk Arena
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 6,60, Zenit — 1,10
Tsmoki-Minsk: After a win over Nizhny Novgorod in the new year the Dragons didn’t manage to develop the success and lost three consecutive games keeping the last place in standings. Chances against Zenit are evidently fat, in a 12-games confrontation history Tsmoki haven’t won yet.
Zenit: Meanwhile, Petersburg are confidently keeping the first place in a regular season beating 2 strong teams, Lokomotiv-Kuban and Nizhny Novgorod. However, in the latest Euroleague game Zenit couldn’t take revenge on Fenerbahce for a home loss. Zenit lost against despite extraordinary game by Will Thomas that scored 20+ points again and will try to do it again vs Tsmoki. Another motivation for Zenit is that Xavi Pascual was selected to head World Stars in All-Star Game.
Zielona Gora (Poland) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 18:00 (20:00 МСК)
Venue: Poland, Zielona Gora, CRS Hala Zielona Góra
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Zielona Gora — 1,37, Nizhny Novgorod — 3,10
Zielona Gora: The Polish team look better and better with every game spent. Winning last 7 out of 8 games Zan Tabak squad had a crazy game-winner against CSKA, they also managed to come back from -15 twice. It helped Zielona Gora take fifth spot in standings that was held by Nizhny recently.
Nizhny Novgorod: The first game against these teams was bright and high-scoring, Volga won it 100:93 despite incredible performance by Geoffrey Groselle and Iffe Lundberg, the main hero was Anton Astapkovich who scored 25 points. However, at that moment the standings situation was different: Nizhny were the team on the rise while Zielona Gora back then suffered third consecutive defeat. Now Nizhny are struggling, their losing streak is now 5 games.
February 8, Monday
Khimki (Russia) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (19:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match TV
Odds by Fonbet: Khimki — 2,60, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,50
Khimki: Suffering serious roster issues Khimki took their first win under Andrey Maltsev coaching in last round. By the way, via different reasons Alexey Shved, Devin Booker, Stefan Jovic and Janis Timma didn’t play. In this situation team management tries to enhance the roster, for example veteran Anton Ponkrashev that was playing for Khimki since 2007 till 2009 signed with the team.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Although they lost to Zenit Kuban continue to keep top-4 spot. Another loss this week took place in EuroCup against Partizan where Josh Perkins brought the win to Serbians with a last-seconds drive. However, the front-runner are Lokomotiv that don’t have so many roster problems. Khimki frontcourt will probably have a hard time holding Loko’s frontcourt headed by Reggie Lynch and Drew Gordon (15 points against Zenit). In the first game of these teams Khimki managed to break 6-game Kuban winning streak, Shved and Booker scored 51 points combined back then but their participation in the upcoming game is still questionable. Meanwhile, Evgeny Pashutin was selected to head Russian Stars in All-Star Game.
February 9, Tuesday
PARMA (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 19:30 (17:30 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: Basketball World
February 12, Friday
Kalev (Estonia) vs PARMA (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (17:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: Basketball World
PARMA: PARMA and Kalev will have 2 games against each other in 3 days, both at PARMA home arena. The first game should have taken place in the beginning of January but was canceled due to Kalev positive coronavirus tests. At the moment both teams try to overcome bad streaks: both teams lost 4 of 5 recent games (except for Sunday Kalev game vs CSKA). Perm continue to fight for play-off zone and power up the roster, the last signing is ex-Zielona Gora guard Marcel Ponitka who has already debuted against Khimki (The Pole scored 12 points).
Kalev: Last Kalev win over PARMA took place in April 2019, however, those and current teams have alomost nothing in common. For Tallinn back-to-back games against PARMA are probably the last chance to fight for Top-10 place as then they will face only Top-8 teams.
February 10, Wednesday
Enisey (Russia) vs CSKA (Russia)
Time: 19:30 (15:30 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Sever Arena
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Enisey: The Siberians got on track in January and early February taking 3 consecutive victories. However, they haven’t had to play against contenders like CSKA, Enisey beat Astana twice and Kalev. It is interesting that injured CSKA player Tornike Shengelia will be replaced by Enisey center Dusin Hogue on the All-Star Game.
CSKA: In 15-game confrontation history CSKA took 15 victories. Their first game of the season was a blowout, CSKA won with record 49-point lead. In this game the main factor that can prevent CSKA from winning is fatigue.
UNICS (Russia) vs Zenit (Russia)
Time: 18:45 (18:45 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match TV
UNICS: In one of the main week games 3rd team will host the leader. Their December meet ended with incredible Zenit comeback: losing 19 points Petersburg managed to take over the game and won in double digits. Kazan could score only 24 points in the seconds half. Since then both teams have been red hot, UNICS and Zenit lost only 1 game since December 6.
Zenit: Although the teams are contenders the game isn’t expected to be high-scoring. In the first game the teams scored only 150 points combined, also both teams are top-3 in defensive rating (71,4 for Zenit and 75,5 for UNICS). One of the main questions is if Petersburg can hold Jamar Smith. Last time Smith didn’t participate in the game, and maybe he was that missing puzzle to stop Zenit’s comeback
February 11, Thursday
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) vs Avtodor (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (19:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, FOC Mescherskiy
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Nizhny Novgorod: Volga derby has always been principled, at the moment Nizhny lead in the confrontation (6 wins in 11 games). Despite the long bad streak for both teams the situation isn’t catastrophe, they have neutral record and Nizhny only spent 12 games this season (to compare, Zielona Gora spent 17). Against Zenit Zoran Lukic squad lost but were fighting to the end showing that they shouldn’t be undervalued.
Avtodor: In the most stat indicators the teams are even but at one Avtodor is a clear favourite, it is rebounds. Saratov are top-3 rebounding teams in the League (37,6 per game) while Nizhny aren’t even top-10. Nizhny have nothing to counter to Avtodor frontcourt led by Zeljko Sakic, especially considering that Gordie Herbert’s squad have just signed Cheick Diallo.
February 12, Friday
Astana (Kazakhstan) vs Khimki (Russia)
Time: 19:30 (16:30 МSК)
Venue: Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Velodrome
Broadcast: TV Start
Astana: Bright victory over Loko didn’t become the basis for Astana further success, Kazakhstan lost 3 consecutive games ans still are off the play-off zone. Considering Khimki roster issues Emil Rajkovikj squad will try to repeat another historic win of the season, recall that in October Astana beat Khimki for the first time in 10 years on the road.
Khimki: Moment of truth has became for Khimki: this week PARMA possibly can outpace Khimki in wins. Thus, no matter how the game against Lokomotiv-Kuban ends Khimki have to take the victory against Astana. Otherwise, Khimki can fall off the top-8, after this game Khimki will have 4 meetings against top-5 teams.
February 13, Saturday
CSKA (Russia) vs Zenit (Russia)
Time: 13:00 (13:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: Match TV
CSKA: The game of the week to be held between two leading teams of the regular season. Despite the game is home for CSKA they can’t be considered front-runners. In addition to big roster difficulties (recall, there are 11 active players in roster including young Daniil Kochergin who hasn’t played this season) there is also tough schedule: less than in a week the Red-Blues will have 3 games in the United League.
Zenit: Although formally the opponents are equal CSKA multiple injuries make sense. For example, CSKA are second best rebounding team, but it was before Nikola Milutinov’s injury, Serbian center is off till the end of the season. Considering incredible shape of Will Thomas in recent games Zenit’s frontcourt advantage may become the x-factor. By the way, the last time Petersburg beat CSKA was in October 2019 under Joan Plaza coaching.
