Five games of the regular season will be held on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Saturday November 16
PARMA (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 17:30 (15:30 МSК)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: League’s website
Odds by Fonbet: PARMA’s win — 2,70, UNICS’ win — 1,47
PARMA: Paradoxically, PARMA are one of the highest scoring teams but hold second place from the end with 1 victory in 6 games (89 points on average per game). Already two players of Ural – Arnett Moultrie and Adas Juskevicius – set a season record in scoring (36 and 37 points ). Their problem is the worst defense in the League, allowing 94.5 points per game. By the way, Kazys Maksvytis’ team spent most of the games on the road; They allow much less at home – only 82 points. Assuming the well-known offensive problems of UNICS, this can play a role.
UNICS: It is interesting that in the last two games of these teams it was PARMA players who celebrated the victory. Last season, in the game of the first round, everything ended with an incredible buzzer, and in Kazan PARMA gave UNICS an unpleasant surprise, and threw off the team of Dimitrios Priftis from the first place in the regular season.
The problem of Kazan players now is low scoring (only 79.5 points per game – the second worst in the League). The team of Dimitrios Priftis didn’t exceed this stat even in the lost Eurocup game with Cedevita – Kazan managed to score only 76 points, and lost 82. So far, UNICS has not managed to establish team chemistry – they hold last place in the League in assists, making 14.8 assists per game
Avtodor (Russia) vs Astana (Kazakhstan)
Time: 17:00 (16:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Saratov, DS Cristall
Broadcast: League’s website
Odds by Fonbet: Avtodor’s win — 1,45, Astana’s win — 2,75
Avtodor: In the last round, Saratov finally broke the long 4-game loss streak. Avtodor was among the leaders in rebounds before, and after the return of Isaiah Hicks in the game with Kalev, he took full benefit of this advantage: 52 rebounds, 28 of them were on the account of Hicks and Mouhammadou Jaiteh. The first victory of the season should significantly help them in the confrontation with the “giant” Dusan Ristic, the best League rebounder at the moment.
Astana: Ristic not only leads the League in rebounds, but is also among the top three scoring players. All this makes the confrontation of the front courts of the teams extremely intriguing. However, not only this makes a game interesting. Teams are facing with radically different coaching concepts. If the offence of Avtodor (5th place in the League by points) makes a bet on individual skills and isolation of leaders, then Astana is the third in the League in assists (21.2 assists), while their counterpart only 12th on this stat. Having defeated Tsmoki in the thrilling game, the Kazakhstan broke into the top three and will try to settle on this position.
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, KRK Nagorny
Broadcast: League’s website
Odds by Fonbet: Nizhny Novgorod’s win — 1,30, Zielona Gora’s win — 3,55
Nizhny Novgorod: After a tough defeat against UNICS, they were in the group of teams taking places from the third to sixth. Thus, according to the results of this game weekend, Nizhny Novgorod can either fall into the top three and drop out of the first six. The game against Zielona Gora is unlikely to be simple for them: after a tense duel with UNICS, their team held another game this week – in the Champions League against a familiar Czech team Nimburka United, which Nizhny also lost.
Zielona Gora: Last season, they ended up with Nizhny in a draw – won the first game and lost the second. To be precise, Nizhny Novgorod responded to the victory of Zielona Gora much more confidently – won by 40 points. Of course, the Polish will try to take revenge for this sensitive defeat.
Sunday Nobember 17
Tsmoki-Minsk (Belarus) vs Enisey (Russia)
Time: 15:15 (15:15 МSК)
Place: Belarus, Minsk, Falcon Club
Broadcast: League’s website
Odds by Fonbet: Tsmoki-Minsk’s win — 2,50, Enisey’s win — 1,53
Tsmoki-Minsk: At the moment, they are the only team in the League with zero wins. Dragons could turn the tables in the last round, in the game with Astana, but in the end, luck was on the side of their rivals. They will try to get their first win in the game against Enisey but despite the home advantage of the game for them, the Siberians still look like clear favorites. Enisey is the second in the League by the percentage of three-pointers, while the defense against the “shooting” teams in Minsk is a bit weak: for example, Astana scored 10 long-range shots of 18 attempts.
Enisey: Even if the sensational starting victory over CSKA isn’t taken into account, now Krasnoyarsk look like a confident contender. Of the two games lost to the grand teams, they looked obviously weaker only in the game with Khimki – with Zenit, the team of Drazen Anzulovic played aggressively and constantly kept Zenit in suspense. At the same time, their 3 point specialists, who made only 6 long-range shots, played noticeably worse in the game against Zenit. Tsmoki-Minsk are not among the best defensive teams (with 91.8 points allowed on average per game, they are at the third place from the end), so you can expect spectacular three-pointer performance from Enisey.
Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Loko’s win — 1,15, Kalev’s win — 5,50
Lokomotiv-Kuban:The last game week was unsuccessful for them on two sides: in the League they lost to their principal rival CSKA, and in the European Cup they lost to the Italian Venice. After these failures, Luсa Banchi was dismissed, and for the upcoming game the team will be prepared by Bogdan Karaicic, who has been part of the club’s coaching staff since the 2018/19 season.
Despite the huge advantage in face-to-face meetings with Kalev (10:2), the game does not promise to be simple – Kalev already has success in games against Zenit and UNICS, and the last word is still in opposition to Loko what is behind them: Kalev won both their games against Lokomotiv last season. In the meantime, to compensate for the absence of injured Vitaliy Fridzon, Lokomotiv became active on the transfer market – the team was strengthened by the Lithuanian forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas who moved from Olympiacos.
Kalev: After a powerful 3 game win streak, the team slowed down, losing to PARMA and Avtodor – for both teams the victory over Kalev was the first in the season. As a result, some time ago Kalev were in the top three, are now only the sixth. However, there is such a density in the table that after Sunday games, the Roberts Stelmachers team will again be able to settle in its upper part. The problem area is offence. Despite all the successes, Kalev is gaining the least points in the League (78.7) and is in the second worst place in rebounds, which can seriously affect the game with such an athletic opponent as Lokomotiv.
