On Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 8 regular season games will take place.
January 29, Friday
Kalev (Estonia) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 19:00 (20:00 МSК)
Venue: Estonia, Tallinn, Kalevi Spordihall
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Kalev — 2,45, Zielona Gora — 1,55
Kalev: Beating Tsmoki Tallinn managed to take second victory this season. If Kalev plan to fight for a play-off spot they have to win next two games. It will be home games, then Kalev will play against CSKA and PARMA on the road.
Zielona Gora: Zielona Gora winter good streak after an unsuccessful start is one of the most interesting stories of the season. In last 6 games the Poles took 5 wins (the only defeat against season top group UNICS with 1 point differential). Considering Poles’ shape their chances look hopeful, Marcus Keene vs Iffe Lunberg match up may become the main intrigue of the game, they are best 5th and 3rd scorers of the League.
January 30, Saturday
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 15:45 (15:45 МSК)
Venue: Belarus, Minsk, Falcon Club
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk — 4,70, UNICS — 1,19
Tsmoki-Minsk: First time this season the teams met a little earlier than a month ago, and back then Tsmoki gave contender a hard time, Kazan had to come back from -16, and the game was decided in last few minutes. Are Minsk able to repeat this result is an open question. Only two times this season Tsmoki managed to score 80+ points, last time it was in early December.
UNICS: Dragons’ rivals are one of the best defensive teams of the United League. In last 5 games Kazan allowed 70+ points only once beating Khimki that night anyway scoring 93 points. UNICS in 2021 haven’t lost yet: beating Mornar Bar in EuroCup last game, Dimitrios Priftis team settled on the leading spot in their group in EuroCup.
January 31, Sunday
Astana (Kazakhstan) vs Avtodor (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (12:00 МSК)
Venue: Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Velodrome
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Astana — 1,65, Avtodor — 2,25
Astana: Emil Rajkovikj team aren’t stable. After a loud victory over Lokomotiv-Kuban Astana lost to Enisey that hadn’t won since November then. This defeat complicated the situation in standings. However, Kazakhstan can improve it: Astana will have a 4-home game streak. Before that Kazakhstan spent twice more games on the road – 8 of 12.
Avtodor: Saratov continue their fall off the upper standings spots slowing it down a bit with a win over Kalev, Gordie Herbert team lost to CSKA and Zielona Gora, setting season scoring-low against the Poles – only 64 points. Besides, one of the frontcourt key factors Drew Gordon moved to Krasnodar. However, after it Avtodor made a smart trade signing Brescia center Dusan Ristic. By the way, Serbian center became famous in the United League playing for Astana averaging 15,7 points and 10,9 rebounds, he was named the best center of the last season. Ristic-Sakic duo looks like potential strongest bigs duo of the League. Probably, he will debut against his ex-team.
Zenit (Russia) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 17:30 (17:30 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Saint Petersburg, SC Yubileinyi
Broadcast: Match TV
Odds by Fonbet: Zenit — 1,28, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 3,70
Zenit: In the game of the week standings leader will face the fourth team. The last game Petersburg spent was in Euroleague where they met one of contenders Barcelona. Although they lost Zenit showed spirit, Xavi Pascual won the 4th quarter 31:16. The main problem is still frontcourt, only Arturas Gudaitis has to do all the “bigs” job. It wasn’t noticeable against Barcelona, Zenit even were better at boards but against powerful Loko frontcourt it may become a key factor.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Impressive frontcourt was powered up with Drew Gordon signing. However, even without Gordon Loko beat Partizan in EuroCup. The intrigue is that it were Loko who broke Zenit winning streak in December, this defeat is still the only Petersburg loss this season. Zenit are aimed to take revenge (15-point defeat) but Krasnodar have something to prove: in case of victory they may catch UNICS (if Kazan lose in Minsk) and fight for a top-3 spot.
February 1, Monday
PARMA (Russia) vs Khimki (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (17:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: PARMA — 3,70, Avtodor — 1,28
PARMA: Before the game against Khimki Ural suffered a loss: team’s second best scorer Robert Johnson (11.3 point per game) left PARMA for personal reasons. By the way, it was Johnson who became the best Ural player in the first game against Khimki this season, however, his 24 points didn’t save PARMA from defeat. Back then, Kazys Maksvytis squad couldn’t hold Alexey Shved who hit 9 from 11 field goals and gave out 10 assists with only 1 turnover.
Khimki: The team decided to start rebuilding during the season. After Rimas Kurtinaitis two starters left the team, Greg Monroe and Jonas Jerebko. Thus, Alexey Shved has to do more, actually he found his second wind. In the Euroleague game against Bayern Khimki lost 2 points but Shved had one of the best season performances scoring 32 points and 11 assists. Evgeny Valiev came back to Khimki. Recall, this experienced center hasn’t played this season in the United League, last season he spent in PARMA.
Kalev (Estonia) vs Enisey (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (20:00 МSК)
Venue: Estonia, Tallinn, Kalevi Spordihall
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Kalev: Kalev and Enisey are even in their matchup history, in 14 games the teams won 7 both. The value of this game is extremely high, the defeat by any of this teams may end their race for the play-off spot. Both teams won their last games but Kalev can approach the Monday game with 3 consecutive wins if they beat Zielona Gora.
Enisey: The Siberians finally broke 3-month drought winning for the first time since November. Drazen Anzulovich team managed to beat Astana although they lost their leading scorer Mikhail Kulagin. In his absence Tyus Battle proved himself, he spent the best game this season and scored 20+ points for the first time this season.
Zielona Gora (Poland) vs CSKA (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (21:00 МСК)
Venue: Poland, Zielona Gora, CRS Hala Zielona Góra
Broadcast: League’s web-site
Zielona Gora: The Poles have already met CSKA this season but it wasn’t a success. In the first half alone CSKA gained double-digit lead, and in the second they increased the lead taking confident victory despite Iffe Lundberg efforts (22 points). However, since then Zielona Gora have stepped on the right path: After defeat from CSKA the Poles won 5 games out of 6. Anyway, CSKA are clear front runners: In 4 games between this teams the Red-Blues won 4 times with average differential of 33 points.
CSKA: In the United League CSKA had an almost 2-week pause, last game they spent on January 18 against Avtodor. However, CSKA weren’t resting all this time: they had 3 tough Euroleague games. Two of those (vs Barcelona and Fenerbahce) they lost, and in the third they hardly beat Alba – 71:68. The player of the game was Tornike Shengelia who scored 20 points. Anyway, this little recession didn’t influence their leadership shared with Barcelona. The Mike James situation isn’t clear yet, CSKA top scorer may not play in a few next games.
February 2, Tuesday
Zenit (Russia) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 20:00 (20:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Saint Petersburg, SC Yubileinyi
Broadcast: Match! Igra
Zenit: The game against NN will take place only 2 days after their game against Lokomotiv that is expected to be tough. The positive thing is that both are home games that means Zenit can prepare for the games losing no time on flights. The last time Zenit beat Nizhny was 2 years ago, January 2019. However, that Zenit and current Zenit have nothing in common. Now, Xavi Pascual squad has a chance to use Nizhny’s bad streak and outrun CSKA even more.
Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny’s losing streak is now 4 games and only via winning streak in 2020 Nizhny keep positive record. Recall, Nizhny haven’t won yet in 2020. As Zoran Lukic noticed after the game against UNICS “the team has the spirit but not the strength. Nizhny’s coach meant poor rotation. Indeed, against Kazan young players Ilya Platonov, Aleksandr Chadov and 18 years old Stepan Gontar stepped on the court, Artem Komolov had to play with finger injury almost all game long. Considering NN roster problems away victory over Zenit will be a pure feat.
