Nizhny are second, Saratov beat Lokomotiv, the Dane wins the Green Derby. Week in review

Nizhny are second, Saratov beat Lokomotiv, the Dane wins the Green Derby. Week in review

One more week of sensations in the United League.

Avtodor stop Loko’s winning streak

The game of the week was Avtodor vs Loko in Saratov. Evgeny Pashutin return to the city, ex-teammates match ups (Drew Gordon and Alan Williams played together for Long Island Nets, Nate Mason and Reggie Lynch for Minnestoa in NCAA), 3-game winning streaks of both teams, there were lots of interesting points in that game.

Game of the week really was amazing: Avtodor gained double digit lead in the first already in the first quarter, Loko came back immediately, by the half break Krasnodar were up ahead. Will Cummings played his best game for Loko, scored 29 points and was ready to take the player of the game award.

Alan Williams was Robin to Cummings-Batman: he was collecting boards, protecting the paint and leading the team for 4th consecutive victory. The center made 5th double-double in 6 games of the season, finished the game with 17 points and 13 rebounds.

However, all of this was in the shade of Drew Gordon performance. Avtodor’s center wasn’t active in the first half in the paint against Alan Williams, but surprisingly found himself a deadeye shooter hitting 2 of 3 threes. The point is that in last 2 season in the United League he hit only 1 3-pointer! It was his buzzer-beating long-range shot that let Avtodor avoid the defeat and forced overtime:

In the overtime Saratov achieved what they wanted breaking Loko’s winning streak and extending their one:

Drew Gordon played his career-high game in the United League scoring 27 points, 15 rebounds and 37 efficiency points (11th best result in Avtodor’s history).


Zielona Gora beat UNICS for the first time in the history

The second sensation of the week took place in Poland where UNICS didn’t manage to outclass Zielona Gora. During the game Dimitrios Priftis’ team were 17 points behind, the Poles were opening guests’ defense times and times again:

Via Jamar Smith, Okaro White and Evgeniy Kolesnikov accurate shots Kazan managed to come back and 88 second before the final buzzer even were leading, for the first time in the game. Nevertheless, Zielona Gora made the final call, Iffe Lundberg made, to be clear. At first Zan Tabak’s team played a risky combination with long-range shot that was made by the Danish guard, and 30 seconds before the buzzer he drained another three that became a game-winner.

Iffe Lundberg with his 32 points against UNICS became the first Zielona Gora player to score 30+ points in a single game. He was included in the team of the week for this:

Zielona Gora beat UNICS for the first time in the history, and head coach Zan Tabak said the Kazan was the strongest team they had beat in 1,5 years of his coaching.

Nizhny get back to the winning path even without Astapkovich

Shortly before the game against PARMA it was announced that Nizhny’s leader Anton Astapkovich wouldn’t play: the forward has already made negative COVID-19 tests but didn’t get into shape, thus the coaching stuff decided not to risk.

Playing without an offensive leader Nizhny Novgorod were acting like front runners: they were leading almost all the time, showing tight defense and dictating the game. In that game PARMA were up ahead for only 41 seconds!

The key for Nizhny’s victory was the defense: they were constantly changing the rhythm and tried not to allow Perm’s fast breaks. In addition, PARMA hit only 4 threes in 19 attempts. In combination with lost rebounds it led to the defeat. This victory let Nizhny Novgorod take the second place in standings, only one loss in the season!

Jubilee

Nizhny Novgorod’s captain Evgenii Baburin scored only one three this weekend but it was the 250th three for the guard in the United League. Besides Baburin only 8 players have achieved it – Alexey Shved, Vitaly Fridzon, Sergey Monia, Branko Mirkovic, Milos Teodosic, Andrey Vorontsevich, Janis Timma and Semen Antonov.

Team of the week

Standings