Perm and Moscow will host the Quarterfinals Games 3 on Thursday.
PARMA-PARI (Perm) – UNICS (Kazan)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Igra, League website
Series Score: 0-2
Comments after Game 2:
Velimir Perasovic, UNICS head coach :
– We started the game much more confident than the Game 1. We stayed focused, controlled the game and by halftime had created a 19-point lead. That allowed us to feel more confident and relaxed. I’m sure PARMA-PARI will show different energy with the fans support.
Evgeny Pashutin, PARMA-PARI head coach:
– UNICS once again played tight on defense. Already in the first quarter the hosts imposed their rhythm, which we were not ready for. In the first quarter we had 8 turnovers, allowing UNICS to run in fastbreaks and score easy points. In the second quarter we tried to take control of the game. Platunov cooled the game down a bit and added some organization. We started to play as a team, but, unfortunately, we still let opponents score 25 points, even after scoring 21.
The so-called defensive third quarter, we scored 10 points and let opponents to score 12. I told the guys that we had a chance to play on a level and to win, but to play like that – good defense, smart offense. Our opponent has a long bench, plays physical basketball and tries to impose a quick game, taking advantage of that. Now our task is to work on our mistakes and recover. We still have a chance; we believe in it. We’ll try to show the kind of Playoffs basketball we played in the third quarter and win with the support of our fans.
MBA (Moscow) – Zenit (St. Petersburg)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Igra, League website
Series Score: 1-1
Comments after Game 2:
Xavier Pascual, Zenit head coach:
– We are happy to win. I think from start to finish we were in the lead, we played well both defensively and offensively. I congratulate the team, now we have to continue. Now the score is 1-1 in the Series, we have to get ready for the next game. A blowout? It’s Playoffs time, so it’s enough to win by 1 point. It is important that we won, that now the score is 1-1. The new game will be different, we need to be ready.
Vasily Karasev, MBA head coach:
– Zenit needed to win, and they prepared for it very well. Three-pointers? It happens, at the beginning we didn’t execute the defense a little bit. Zenit played hard, they didn’t let us score points. We have everything in front of us, we have to play as we played. It is a huge problem for Zenit to lose, but for us it is not a huge problem. The most important thing is to find our game. I’m a little unhappy with the way we played, we fell apart under pressure, but we accomplished the task at most, took one win, took home court advantage. We will work there.
