On Saturday, Sunday and Monday there are 6 regular season games to be held.
January 16, Saturday
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (15:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, CEC Nagorny
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Nizhny Novgorod — 2,60, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,50
Nizhny Novgorod: Although Nizhny and Loko are in the top of standings in recent time they had a bad streak. Both teams lost two games in a row including teams that are not in the play-off zone. For Nizhny the defeat to Tsmoki was devastating because they fell of League’s top-3. The game against Loko is an opportunity to fight for top-3 again. These teams have already met this season and it wasn’t a success for Zoran Lukic’s team. However, Loko were led by Alan Williams who had 26+17 rebounds, this game injured Loko center won’t play.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Loko have other advantages, at least Evgeny Pashutin found players to replace the injured leader. Even without Williams Loko is the top rebounding team in the League averaging over 40 rebounds per game. Nizhny are struggling with it, they are averaging only 31,9 rebounds (11th place). Remember, Nizhny’s top rebounder is guard Evgenii Baburin and the only true center Alexandre Gavrilovic will have to face such bigs as Reggie Lynch and Kevin Hervey. On the other side, even 22 offensive rebounds haven’t helped Loko in the game against Metropolitan in the EuroCup, in the last quarter famous for its defense Loko allowed 29 points.
17 января, воскресенье
«Енисей» (Россия) – «ПАРМА» (Россия)
Time: 17:00 (13:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Enisey — 2,15, PARMA — 1,70
Enisey: After Tsmoki’s victory, only two teams in the League – Enisey and Kalev – have only one victory each. Enisey won their first and so far the only victory this season more than two months ago, and it was the game against PARMA. However, after that, Enisey faced a series of meetings with the teams from the top of the table, which resulted in a series of five defeats in a row. In the game with PARMA, the defense of Krasnoyarsk worked perfectly, preventing the opponents from gaining even 70 points. Enisey’s chance is in a long pause between games (the team played its last game in the League on January 3): according to Drazen Anzulovic, this will allow the team to recover and overcome the difficulties with rotation that Enisey had in the game against Zenit.
PARMA: The Urals came up to the first game with Enisey in the rank of one of the leaders. But now PARMA has a streak of four defeats, that is, Kazis Maksvitis’s team cannot be considered a favorite, although it is much higher in the table. Their attack failed in the last meeting with UNICS – PARMA scored 69 points and made 20 turnovers, which in many respects became the reason for the defeat in an equal game. By the way, it is PARMA and Enisey that allow the most turnovers in the League – 16.3 per game for Enisey, 15.7 for PARMA. Therefore, in the case of a close game, the factor of unforced errors can decide its outcome.
Khimki (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (15:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Khimki — 1,65, UNICS — 2,25
Khimki: In the last four games in the United League, Khimki got three victories, including some against such opponents as CSKA and Loko. This allowed Khimki to return to the top 8. However, it is too early to say that the crisis in the team has been completely overcome. In Euroleague game against Barcelona, Rimas Kurtinaitis’s team was forced to play without Stefan Jovic, Janis Timma and Jonas Jerebko, and then Khimki suffered their biggest defeat in the history of the tournament, losing to Efes by 39 points. The game against UNICS should become one of the defining ones for Khimki at this stage of the championship – in case of a loss, it will be very difficult for them to come back and compete for the top positions.
UNICS: In 2021, Kazan hasn’t been beaten yet: to the three victories in a row in the United League, UNICS added the European Cup victory over Andorra. At the same time, apart from the game with Avtodor, these victories were not easy for Kazan. Dimitris Priftis’ players are building a concrete defense, relying mainly on the individual actions of their leaders in attack: 76 points in the game against PARMA, 73 in the game against Andorra and only 65 in the game against Zielona Gora, which was barely enough to win. In general, according to the stats of team interactions, Khimki and UNICS are at opposite poles: if Khimki lead the League in terms of assists (21.7 per game), UNICS is the worst team in this indicator (14.7 assists). If Khimki’s defense manages to close the leaders of the Kazan team, UNICS’s attack may stall.
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 15:00 (15:00 МSК)
Venue: Belarus, Minsk, Falcon Club
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 2,40, Zielona Gora — 1,57
Tsmoki-Minsk: The Dragons have changed in the last games – at first they almost beat the powerful Lokomotiv-Kuban, and then defeated another rival from the top 5 of the League – Nizhny Novgorod. Curiously, both of these games ended with the same score – 77:76, and their endings were very similar. But in the game with Loko, the Dragons themselves were unable to realize Kris Clyburn’s throw to win, and in the duel with Nizhny they did not allow them to score a game winner. At the same time, Tsmoki showed real will to win in the game against Nizhny and managed to overcome the 14-point gap.
Zielona Gora: The short history of head-to-head confrontations between the Poles and their neighbors from Minsk is only five games. In four of them, Zielona Gora was stronger – at the moment the Poles have three victories over Tsmoki in a row. In Sunday’s game, the Polish team also looks like a favorite so far: Zielona Gora occupies the eighth place and has a pass to the playoffs, and in general has significantly increased compared to the beginning of the season. Even the defeat to UNICS with a difference of one point, according to Dimitris Priftis, could well have turned into a victory for the Poles, if not for the inspired play of Jamar Smith and Iffe Lundberg’s misfire in his last possession. In general, Lundberg can become the main X-factor of the game – he is in third place in the League in terms of performance (and in fact in second – if you do not take into account the retired Alan Williams), gaining 20.38 points per game. Tsmoki’s roster has much fewer players who can light up in the crisis times by taking over the game: Kris Clyburn, the Dragon’s best attacking player, is gaining 14.5 points per game.
January 18, Monday
Avtodor (Russia) vs CSKA (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (18:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Saratov, Crystal SP
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Avtodor: The end of December and the beginning of January became a very difficult period for them: they lost three games in a row. However, the previous winning streak and the victory over Kalev allow Avtodor to go with a positive balance of victories and occupy a place at the top of the table. But now they will have a game with CSKA, a team that lost to the Saratov team once in 12 head-to-head history, and this happened almost five years ago. This season the teams already met in October, and then CSKA showed the Saratov team a master class, beating them with a difference of 34 points and setting a season record for the number of three-pointers. By the way, that game was the best in his career for Andrey Lopatin – Avtodor did not manage to hold back the young CSKA player who scored 20 points. Avtodor’s main hope is Nikita Mikhailovskii, who opened up and set his scoring record in the game against Kalev (24 points).
CSKA: They continue to play in a tough time mode: on January 13, they defeated Zalgiris in Euroleague, on the 15th they will play against Barcelona, and already on the 18th they are going to Saratov. This does not prevent CSKA from being on the rise: although the defeat to Baskonia interrupted an epic 12-game winning streak in Euroleague, they are still at the first place in the regular season, and in the United League, after the victory over Nizhny, they moved to the second line. According to most statis, CSKA is now either in the lead or among the leaders: for example, they have the best offence in the League by a large margin – they are the only ones who gain more than 90 points, namely, 92.9. CSKA’s closest pursuer, Lokomotiv, has 88.4 points per game.
Kalev (Estonia) vs Zenit (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (20:00 МSК)
Venue: Estonia, Tallinn, Saku Suurhall
Broadcast: TV Start
Kalev: The league leader and the second-to-last team will meet in the northwest derby. Despite the fact that Tallinn play at home, Zenit will be the favorite of this meeting for sure. True, the first game of these teams in the season was not an easy walk for Zenit. Kalev arranged a real three-point shootout with Zenit and for most of the game was on an equal footing with a formidable opponent. But in the end, Tallinn could not hold back the hero of the game – Alex Poythress, whose powerful play led to Zenit’s 9-0 leap. However, now the injured Poythress will not come out on the court.
Zenit: They, like CSKA, continue to play on two fronts – on January 13, the game against Bayern, on the 15th with Zalgiris, and on the 18th they will go to Tallinn. But, like the army team, Xavi Pascual’s successful rotation helps the team to distribute power. In addition, Zenit does not forget about strengthening the roster: this week the team’s management announced the signing of a contract with the famous center Tarik Black, who has significant experience of playing in the NBA (220 games), and the last two seasons participated in Euroleague as part of Maccabi. This will allow Zenit to compensate for the absence of Poythress, who can miss up to a month and a half due to injury.
