Six games to be played on Sunday and Monday.
November 24, Sunday
Time: 15:00 (15:00 MSK)
Venue: BCMO, Khimki, Russia
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Fonbet line: Khimki win — 1,04, Tsmoki-Minsk win — 11,0
Khimki: In this game, teams from different poles meet. Khimki are still unbeaten while Tsmoki have zero victories. Personal faceoff favors the home club: Minsk were beaten 12 times. Fatigue can be the main problem for the Yellow-blues as they’ll face the Dragons after a trip to Spain where Khimki lost to Valencia in an intense game.
Tsmoki-Minsk were close to get the first win in the last game, but Enisey had more luck for the clutch. Khimki is another type of a rival, they outplay Minsk in all major stats except free throws. Nonetheless, the hosts shouldn’t except an easy game as Tsmoki showed their character in last four games – the fought to the end and losses were by 1-5 points.
Time: 17:30 (15:30 МСК)
Venue: UDS Molot, Perm, Russia
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: PARMA win — 1,75, Avtodor win — 2,08
PARMA with their first season win less than a month ago, Perm lost 3 in a row. It’s worth mentioning that PARMA showed their best performance against top teams. They lost to Khimki by 3, and UNICS by 1. After the latter game, they’ve made some changes. Due to disciplinary reasons, Arnett Moultrie was suspended and then left the team which can be a problem against Avtodor and their powerful frontline, as Moultrie was the best scorer and rebounder. However, Adas Juskevicius is taking the lead in the team with 30+ points in two straight games.
Avtodor paced up after a series of losses in the seasons tart. Now they’re close to top 8 teams. Isaiah Hicks came back and that makes a difference. Their duo with Mouhammadou Jaiteh destroys everyone in the paint. Against Astana these two made a record of 40 points and 21 rebounds, against Kalev 40 points and 28 (!) rebounds. No surprise to see Saratov ranked first in rebounds while Perm averages about 10 less (42.17 vs 32.71).
November 24, Monday
Time: 19:00 (19:00 MSK)
Venue: Basket Hall, Kazan, Russia
Broadcast: Match TV
Fonbet line: UNICS win — 1,60, Zenit win — 2,35
UNICS: Both teams didn’t live up to the offseason expectations. Thus the victory is priceless for both. Kazan look more solid as they have two straight (but hard) wins and 5th place in standings. Meanwhile, Zenit stopped 4-games losing streak only in the last match and are currently below playoff zone. Dimitris Priftis’ side still can’t adjust offense. Only Kalev scores less per game. And Eurocup game against Nanterre describes it well as Kazan lost scoring only 72 points. And still UNICS is ranked first in Eurocup group, therefore Zenit shouldn’t underestimate the rivals.
Zenit finally stopped their losing streak beating Enisey. But then they lost three in Euroleague: Efes, Valencia and Baskonia. Even with all these games lost Zenit looks like it should be ranked higher. They have nice offence especially in terms of teamplays: Zenit takes the second place (in United League) in assists (22.0 assists per game) and is in top 4 in efficiency (100.9 points). It should be noted that their best offensive performances happen at the road games (90.5 points vs 79.3 at home). However, the last Euroleague game was different as Zenit lost on the road to Baskonia scoring only 60.
Time: 19:30 (19:30 MSK)
Venue: USH CSKA, Moscow, Russia
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Fonbet line: CSKA win — 1,04, Nizhny Novgorod win — 11,0
CSKA have four wins in a row in United League. And last time they outplayed Lokomotiv, one of the contenders. Even with a roster troubles, CSKA is supposed to down Nizhny who have hard time last games. In 21 games of this rivalry, Nizhny won only 2 with the last victory more than 4 years ago. At the same time, one should remember and CSKA lost to Real only two days before this game, and that was their third straight road loss in Euroleague.
Nizhny Novgorod made an amazing start of VTB League season, but slowed down afterwards. They lost 4 in a row including 2 losses in the Champions League. The last CL game was lost to Gaziantep in a dramatic ending. Evgeny Baburin, team’s best guard and captain, is injured which is a great loss for Zoran Lukic. And the difference could be seen in the last quarter against the Turkish team when Nizhny allowed 29 points. This Monday, they’ll face League’s second offensive team (91.6 points by CSKA), hence Lukic will have to find a way to stop them.
Lokomotiv-Kuban – Zielona Gora
Time: 19:30 (19:30 MSK)
Venue: Basket hall, Krasnodar, Russia
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: Lokomotiv-Kuban win — 1,07 Zielona Gora win — 8,50
Lokomotiv-Kuban parted ways with Luca Banchi after losses to CSKA in United League and Venezia in Eurocup. Bogdan Karaicic is acting head coach and his debut was solid as Lokomotiv beat Kalev and Limoges. Despite the changes, Kuban is in top 3 and have chances to level with CSKA should Loko win and CSKA lose to Nizhny.
Zielona Gora were beaten by Loko twice last season. And the second game was painful as the Polish team scored 41 (season’s worst result, third worst result in League history). This year, however, they are way more confident. They are ranked 6th with 3-2 record in the last five games. And two of these three were road wins, plus Zan Tabak’s side set their second best result in points scored when they beat PARMA with 106 points (their best of 108 points was in the last season, against Avtodor)
Time: 19:00 (20:00 MSK)
Venue: Kalevi Spordihall, Tallinn, Estonia
Broadcast: League site
Fonbet line: Kalev win — 1,50, Astana win — 2,60
Kalev made a sensational season start beating two contenders and being in top 3. But later, three straight losses happened leaving Kalev behind top 8. At the same time, the standings are so tight that two victories can shake up everything. For example, Kalev and Astana have the same number of wins, but Astana were in top three only last week. Kalev still suffer from unstable offensive play. Roberts Stelmahers’ side is the only League team to score below 80 per game (76.4). In the last game against Loko, they scored only 63 which repeats their season worst.
Astana having won two straight games by 1 point (Tsmoki and Zenit) couldn’t manage athletic Avtodor. As told by Emil Rajkovikj, they were not as fresh in the ending as leaders played about 40 minutes. League’s best rebounder Dusan Ristic couldn’t stop Hicks-Jaiteh duo: Astana allowed 48 offensive rebounds. However, it is unlikely that Kalev beat Astana in rebounds: Tallinn don’t have formal centers, not even a player taller than 204 cm. Ristic can hope to feel comfortable in the restricted area.
