Records are sets and milestones reached on a regular basis in the VTB United League. The first two months of this season have been no exception. Number Crunch gets you caught up: from a new scoring record to the League’s biggest rotation.
1,500 career points
CSKA guard Milos Teodosic became the 4th player in the League to reach this milestone. He scored his 1,500th point on November 21 in a road game vs. Kalev.
Teodosic’s teammates, Nikita Kurbanov and James Augustine, both scored their 1,000th points at home against Nizhny Novgorod earlier this week.
42 points in a game
Keith Langford set a new League scoring record, and did so with stunning efficiency. He needed only 20 field-goal attempts, converting 14 (9 from inside the arc, 5 from beyond). The historic achievement came in a game against Tsmoki-Minsk.
38 free throws
CSKA has made 38 free throws twice this season as a team, setting a new League record. The Army Men needed 45 attempts (84%) in a road game vs. Avtodor, and just 42 attempts (90%) at home vs. Parma.
37 team fouls
The overtime game in Saratov between Avtodor and CSKA, which ended in a 104-103 victory for the Army Men, was notable for one other reason: Avtodor committed a League-record 37 team fouls.
22 two-point field-goal attempts
In a home game against Avtodor, VEF center Martins Meiers attempted 22 two-point field goals. That matches the VTB United League record, but wasn’t even his most interesting accomplishment.
5 consecutive games fouling out
Meiers fouled out in VEF’s first five games this season. He breaks the record set by Kalev’s Joosep Tomme in 2011-12, who fouled out of four straight games.
After seven games, Meiers has committed 34 of a maximum 35 fouls, and fouled out six times. He’s only two games shy of the League-record eight games, set by multiple players (Anton Ponomarev, Astana (2015-16), Erik Keedus, Kalev (2014-15), Luksha Andric, Astana (2014-15)).
13 players in the starting lineup
Vasily Karasev and Dusko Ivanovic have used the biggest rotations to start the season: After two months of play, Zenit and Khimki have featured 13 different players in the starting lineup.
45 minutes on the court
Leonidas Kaselakis spent 45 minutes 49 seconds on the court in Astana’s epic double-overtime win against Enisey. That’s 2nd-most in League history, behind David McClure of Neptunas, who played 49 minutes 58 seconds in a game against Enisey during the 2012-13 season.
+18.5 player efficiency rating
Two Russian players, Anton Ponkrashov (UNICS) and Andrei Zubkov (Lokomotiv-Kuban), lead the League in efficiency rating, both averaging +18.5 through two months.
+54 efficiency rating by a lineup
Anton Ponkrashov was also a member of the League’s most efficient lineup to start the season.
UNICS’s five-man lineup of Anton Ponkrashov, Keith Langford, Coty Clarke, Pavel Antipov, and Artsiom Parakhouski averages +54 on the court. No other combination of players in the League is above +20.
11 straight home wins
From October 30 – November 13, the home team won every game in the League. The streak started with Kazan’s win against Tsmoki-Minsk and ended with Enisey’s visit to Khimki. The 11 consecutive wins sets a new VTB United League record.
Four 100-point games in a day
There were five games on November 27 and four teams scored over 100 points in victory: Lokomotiv-Kuban (107), CSKA (105), UNICS (104), and Zenit (100). That had never happened before in the VTB United League. The previous record for 100-point games in a day was three, set on February 16, 2014.
Dmitry Kolinov
