On Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday 4 regular season games will be held.
October 10, Saturday
CSKA (Russia) vs Avtodor (Russia)
Time: 13:00 (13:00 MSK)
Place: Россия, Москва, УСК ЦСКАRussia, Moscow, USH CSKA
Broadcast: Match TV
CSKA:After thrilling game ending against PARMA CSKA approached game vs Lokomotiv with maximum energy and left Krasnodar no chance in the game of the week. CSKA decided not to stop at that point and beat Maccabi in Euroleague. Mike James was the hero, he shoot the guests in the ending and brought the W to his team.
Avtodor: The first and the only Avtodor’s win over CSKA happened in 2015 – 10 of 11 games were won by the Red-Blues. CSKA are the front runners in the upcoming game. Avtodor’s debut wasn’t a luck at all: Saratov lost to PARMA with 23-point gap. Avtodor’s backcourt couldn’t hold Robert Johnson who scored 20 points, by the way CSKA has more talented players that can challenge the guests even more harder, for example the same Mike James.
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 17:00 (17:00 MSK)
Place: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, CEC Nagorny
Broadcast: TV Start
Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny now are only getting into the rhythm: the only game this season they played on September 23. However, the debut was good: they made a mini-sensation beating Khimki. That game included 2 big performances: Anton Astapkovich had the career-high (34 points) and Kasey Shepherd set new League’s record in points scored in a single quarter (26).
Zielona Gora: In the first tours the League’s schedule made Zielona Gora play against contenders Zenit and Loko. This challenge was too hard for Zielona Gora, the Poles lost in both games. Nevertheless, both times they played on the road and looked good: for Zenit and for Loko the game against Zan Tabak’s team wasn’t a piece of cake. Zielona Gora is still setting up the roster, after the game against Loko they signed the Latvian forward Rolands Freimanis, he has played for VEF, Kalev and UNICS in the United League.
October 11, Sunday
Lokomotiv-Kuban (Russia) vs Kalev (Estonia)
Time: 16:00 (16:00 MSK)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Kuban are getting used to the season hardly. The best big of the team Johnny O’Bryant left the team unexpectedly and that influenced the team a lot, after the loss from CSKA Loko failed in the Eurocup letting Virtus score 32 points in 10 minutes. Lokomotiv is going to take revenge on Kalev that is on the last spot with Astana.
Kalev: Obviously, last two games’ results shouldn’t be taken seriously. But some conclusion is made after games against Khimki and Zenit. In both games Kalev was bad at defense, allowing over 90 points. Khimki were dominating in the Tallinn’s paint scoring 48 points from there, 20 of them were second chance points. Meanwhile, Kalev scored only 5 second chance points after 15 offensive rebounds. Although Lokomotiv have problems they still have experienced professionals that can use Kalev’s mistakes.
October 13, Tuesday
PARMA (Russia) vs Zielona Gora (Poland)
Time: 19:30 (17:30 MSK)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: TV Start
PARMA: Perm started the season powerfully. After and incredible win over one of the main contenders of the season (they came back from -22 in the 4th) Kazys Maksvytis’ team went on and beat Avtodor confidently. Team chemistry looks like the strongest Ural weapon: the opponent can’t know who is going to shoot at the moment. For instance, in the game against CSKA 8 PARMA players scored 9+ points. In the game vs Avtodor 6 players did that.
Zielona Gora: The Polish team have a difficult situation: if they lose they may settle on one of the lowest standings spots. In the last season the Poles were pretty good on the road winning 5 of the 10 away games. Now they have to remember their last year experience, otherwise it would be very difficult to catch up with the opponents. The main question is if they can hold Perm 3-point specialists via whom PARMA has the best offense in the League (more than 1 games played only) – 95 points on average.
