On Friday, 2 regular season matches will be in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod.
Friday, February 18
Nizhny Novgorod (Russia) — Avtodor (Russia)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, KRK Nagorny
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 14 games, Nizhny Novgorod — 8 wins, Avtodor – 6 wins
Nizhny Novgorod: After a strong start to the season, Nizhny Novgorod noticeably slowed down – in the last 5 games, NN won only once. Numerous postponements of games have led to more than a month since the last Nizhny Novgorod game in the United League took place. The physical condition and the team roster inspire little optimism to fans, so this time the guests will be the favorite of the Volga Derby.
Avtodor: The Saratov team also slowed down, losing in recent games to 2 direct rivals in the battle for leadership – Zenit and CSKA. At the same time, both rivals, in fact, did not give the Volga a single chance. Despite the losses, Avtodor continues to go to the Top 3 of the League, having three matches in reserve compared to the same CSKA. Saratov is also performing successfully in the FIBA Europe Cup: having defeated the Danish Bakken on Monday, Emil Raikovich’s squad entered the next stage of the tournament from first place in the group, having won 5 victories in 6 matches.
Who to follow: although Zeljko Sakic was unstoppable in the game with Danes (20 points, 8 out of 10 from the field), it is worth noting the young Anton Kvitkovskikh, who played almost the best game this season. The Avtodor forward scored 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. It is quite possible that the Avtodor coaching staff will give him an opportunity to prove himself with Nizhny.
CSKA (Russia) — Lokomotiv Kuban (Russia)
Time: 19:30 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: Match! Strana, League website
Rivalry history: 31 games, CSKA — 22 wins, Lokomotiv Kuban – 9 wins
CSKA: After a crazy start of February, when CSKA played 5 games in 12 days, the Army team finally managed to take a rest, having got a 5-day break for preparation after the game with Astana. The game with the Kazakh team in general was significant. Despite Anthony Hickey’s outstanding performance, CSKA got the win due to the total domination of their bench – the Army team benchers outplayed their counterparts 43:11. Loko’s bench consists mainly of young players (Shcherbenev, Emchenko, Martiuk, Vedishchev), so CSKA will probably also have a serious advantage there, even though the Moscow team continue to perform in a non-optimal roster.
Lokomotiv Kuban: Curiously, in the last game, Loko also played with Astana. In this game, Loko benchers also outplayed Astana bench, but it no longer mattered, since Branko Maksimovic team could not find defense for Anthony Hickey (43 points). As a result, Loko continued to alternate wins with losses – starting from mid-November, the Krasnodar team go strictly form the win to the loss in the next game schedule. However, this time the schedule may not help either: due to the absence of Jonathan Motley, the best Loko player this season, the League’s most effective offense has noticeably sagged, and Jaylen Barford has just begun to get used to it. In the game against the former team, he played well, but spent only 15 minutes on the floor.
What to follow: One of the highlights of the game could be a duel of Iffe Lundberg and Errick McCollum. After Barford arrival, McCollum got the opportunity to return to the starting lineup, because now Loko has another option coming off the bench. In the first round game, Lundberg and McCollum were very noticeable, becoming the second best scoring players of their teams (13 points for the Army team, 17 for Loko).
