On Saturday, Sunday and Monday 5 regular season games take place.
March 27, Saturday
CSKA (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: CSKA — 1,27, UNICS — 3,75
CSKA: For Moscow this game is crucial in terms of League’s leadership. They have much more difficult schedule than Kazan: since Saturday the Red-Blues have to face Top-4 teams (UNICS, Loko and Zenit) and also Nizhny Novgorod that came back to Top-5. CSKA suffered losses before the game, Joel Bolomboy is off because of ankle injury. However, even without Bolomboy CSKA beat Crvena Zvezda in Euroleague easily taking double digit lead in the first quarter alone.
UNICS: However, Kazan are probably much more challenging opponent than the Serbians. Their winning streak is 10 games, after New Year UNICS haven’t lost in the United League allowing 80+ points only twice. By the way, CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis was the last coach to defeat Dimitris Priftis in regular season. Now, UNICS’ main problem is fatigue after the games against Loko in EuroCup quarterfinals. This series is tied – 1:1, UNICS have to face Loko in 2 days.
March 28, Sunday
Enisey (Russia) vs Nizhny Novgorod (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (11:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Sever Arena
Broadcast: TV Start
Odds by Fonbet: Enisey — 2,50, Nizhny Novgorod — 1,53
Enisey: After a short January successful period Enisey took 4 consecutive losses. Although obviously weak game was only against Zielona Gora, losing streak left no chance for Enisey to make play-offs. Now Enisey will try to take revenge one Nizhny for the first round loss, another good game that ended up in a defeat for Enisey. Back then, Enisey managed to overcome 20-point differential but Nizhny stood in the clutch via Kasey Shepherd efforts. Main Enisey’s problem is another injuries’ streak, because of it they were finishing the game against Zenit with only 3 backcourt players.
Nizhny Novgorod: After 2 consecutive defeats to Zielona Gora Volga brought fifth place in standings back. By the way, they the fewest number of games played in the League – 17. In the United League the schedule gave Nizhny a 2-week pause that was used by Zoran Lukic for Champions League. Throughout this time Nizhny Novgorod took 3 victories in a row and made Final Eight of the tournament. Andrei Vorontsevich looks better and better with every game. In the game against AEK he collected double-double (15+11 rebounds) and in the game against Turk Telecom his stat line was 15 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.
Khimki (Russia) vs Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus)
Time: 15:00 (15:00 МSК)
Venue: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Khimki — 1,10, Tsmoki-Minsk — 7,00
Khimki: Andrey Maltsev squad settled in the top-8 beating Zielona Gora. The Polish team is of the main sensations of the season and they couldn’t do anything with Khimki: already in the first quarter Khimki took the victory winning it 30:8. The next step for Khimki is Zenit, however, they’ll meet them in Euroleague. This game takes place only 2 days before the Khimki vs Tsmoki, the factor that may influence the result considering Khimki’s cut rotation.
Tsmoki-Minsk: Minsk have already lost theoretical chances for play-off but they still want to save face. The Dragons proved it in the game against Astana: Tsmoki could have won in it, they were close to force overtime but in the last possession Kris Clyburn wasn’t lucky. It is interesting that Khimki and Tsmoki haven’t met yet in this regular season, the second game the play in April. At the moment the Dragons haven’t ever beat Khimki, they lost all the 14 games.
Kalev (Estonia) vs Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 МSК)
Venue: Estonia, Tallinn, Kalevi Spordihall
Broadcast: Tv Start
Odds by Fonbet: Kalev — 3,60, Lokomotiv-Kuban — 1,29
Kalev: In the first half of the game against CSKA it seemed like Tallinn can repeat the sensation that they did in the first round. However, eventually CSKA managed to take over the game, and in the last quarter Kalev’s defense couldn’t stand the Red-Blues push. Despite this fact, Kalev looked strong, they are not easy to beat for Loko especially considering their tough games against UNICS. As usual, much depends on Kalev’s leader Marcus Keene’s shape. In the game against CSKA Keene was tired by the final quarter and scored only 1 point then.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: As it was already said, Loko continue to fight against UNICS in EuroCup quarterfinals. If the first game Kuban lost in clutch than the second one was much better and they beat Kazan +12. Mantas Kalnietis was on fire in that game, he got in incredible shape by the end of the season. Recall that recently against PARMA Kalnietis had 23+9 stat line, the Lithuanian is League’s assists leader with confident gap making 10 per game. Despite the fact that Loko has a victory over Kalev this season, actually it will be their first game against Kalev this season as the first one was technical loss for Kalev.
