This Sunday, Monday and Tuesday 4 regular season games will take place.
November 3, Sunday
Khimki (Russia) vs UNICS (Russia)
Time: 15:00 (15:00 МSK)
Place: Russia, Khimki, BCMO
Broadcast: Match TV
Odds by Fonbet: Khimki’s win — 1,25, UNICS’ win — 3,95
Khimki: Rimas Kurtinaitis’ team is the only club with 0 losses. Although Khimki is favoured to win team they’re still facing problems. This week Khimki played back-to-back games in Euroleague – two games in two days beating Panathinaikos and losing to Crvena Zvezda. Game against UNICS will be third in 5 days. Good news for Khimki is injured players recovery: for example, Stefan Jovic, who haven’t been playing for a month recovered and played against Crvena Zvezda.
UNICS: After two defeats in a row Kazan hardly managed to beat Tsmoki-Minsk holding unusual seventh place. Errick McCollum got in great shape and his potetnial match-up with Shved is expected to be the most interesting part of the game. He scored 30+ points in two consecutive games (against Joventut and Tsmoki), and he beat the buzzer for the win in Eurocup game against Darussafaka. Kazan continue to power up: Wednesday they announced that they signed ex Clippers and Torino forward Jamil Wilson. This should upgrade UNICS’ offence, which faces some trouble: Dimitrios Priftis’ team hold 11th spot in points per game averaging 12 points lower than their Khimki rivals.
November 4, Monday
Astana (Kazakhstan) vs Zenit (Russia)
Time: 19:30 (16:30 MSK)
Place: Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Velodrome
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Astana’s win — 2,75, Zenit’s win — 1,45
Astana: Emil Raikovikj’s team beat on of the season’s contenders – Lokomotiv-Kuban but then were entirely beaten by Khimki scoring only 56 points (season’s anti-record). For now, Astana is the only team that average less then 73 point a game. It really can make difference in the game against Zenit which is in top-5 League’s defensive teams. However, Astana hold ace too and they count on it. For instance, Kazakhstan is top-2 in rebounding with the help of center Dusan Ristic – he averages 12,7 rebounds per game and he is th best rebounding player in the League.
Zenit: Gustavo Ayon will have to guard strong Serbian forward and he is becoming more and more crucial part of Joan Plaza’s tactics. Zenit lost to Lokomotiv with Ayon absence, but when he returned his team beat Zalgiris on the road in a tough Euroleague game. But things are different in United league for Zenit – they lost 3 games in a row, moreover two of them were must-wins. In the game against Astana Saint Petersburg will do their best to break the loss streak – remember that all Zenit wins were road games.
CSKA (Russia) vs Avtodor (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 МSК)
Place: Russia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: Match TV
Odds by Fonbet: CSKA’s win — 1,01, Avtodor’s win — 16,00
CSKA: From the start of the season Red-blues can’t play consistently. Last two games were confident wins but CSKA rivals were much weaker.
But also CSKA was beaten in Euroleague game against sworn enemy – Olympiacos. Daniel Hackett couldn’t finish that game because of back injury. Last week another team’s leader Will Clyburn had an ACL injury. CSKA have to test reserve players in upcoming game to understand, how hard it is to play without leaders.
Avtodor: Saratov’s start of the season was a failure – they and Tsmoki are the only teams in the League with 0 wins. Although CSKA have won 9 of 10 games against Avtodor, their games are usually tight and high-scoring. For example, Last CSKA win was gained in the ending of super-spectacular game – 116:110. Avtodor is aggressively offensive team that average only 82,7 points per game this season. Thus Saratov signed Nigerian guard Michael Umeh form French Championship – he is expected to replace injured Tobin Carberry, who won’t play till new year.
November 5, Tuesday
Zielona Gora (Poland) vs PARMA (Russia)
Time: 18:00 (20:00 МSК)
Place: Poland, Zielona Gora, CRS Hala Zielona Góra
Broadcast: Match! Strana
Odds by Fonbet: Zielona Gora’s win — 1,60, PARMA’s win — 2,35
Zielona Gora: Formally, Zielona Gora is so far among the outsiders of the regular season – 3 defeats in 4 matches. This is largely due to the difficult schedule of the Poles: they lost to three contenders of the championship race – Khimki, CSKA and Zenit. Gave a fought away with the ambitious Avtodor, Zielona Gora was able to put the first win of the season into their asset. At the same time, they showed decent performance – 89 points. The Parma defence is far from the strongest side of the team (they allow 89.5 points in average, this is the fourth place in the League since the end), therefore, Zielona Gora will try to improve its season record for the points scored.
PARMA: Last season Zielona Gora turned out to be a tough nut for Permians. PARMA lost both matches to the League’s debutants, the first with a 25-point differential, and the second with 20-point (in addition to this game, Zielona Gora also came back from -15). So the team of Kazis Maxvitis has an open debt. In the last round, PARMA got the first victory of the season, cooled down Kalev. One of the key confrontations of the game promises is a duel between the big stars – Drew Gordon and Arnett Moultrie. Interestingly, having Moultrie – one of the best pickers in league , PARMA takes the last place in the League in terms of the number of rebounds per match – only 30.5. So to impose on Gordon the fight for the rebound will be the first priority of the of the Ural team’s frontcourt.
