On Sunday, Perm, Moscow and Kazan will host regular season games.
Sunday, February 13
PARMA-PARIMATCH (Russia) — Kalev/Cramo (Estonia)
Time: 15:00 (13:00 Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 10 games, PARMA — 6 wins, Kalev – 4 wins
PARMA-PARIMATCH: 4 wins in the last 5 games allow the Perm team to confidently stay in the playoff zone. At the same time, PARMA also have a certain amount of safety — so far this season they have played only 10 games, while the same Enisey, which is in 8th place, has already played 12 games. PARMA are doing relatively well in the FIBA Europe Cup. In the first decade of February, PARMA played 2 games in the there, beating Bayreuth, and then losing to Leiden.
Kalev/Cramo: Kalev continue their series of games with the Top 6 teams of the United League. On this path, they have 4 losses in a row so far. However, the last game with Zenit, even if it ended unsuccessfully from the point of view of the result, Kalev can clearly bring the asset. Only Jordan Loyd’s heroic defensive play in the last seconds prevented the Tallinn team from snatching win from one of the League leaders. The visit to Perm is a key one for Kalev at this stage — the loss will seriously complicate the battle for the 8th place. The last time Kalev won in Perm was almost 3 years ago, and this win is generally the last in their face—to-face games at the moment – since that April game, PARMA has beat the opponent both at home and away.
Who to follow: Jeremiah Hill became the MVP of January in the United League, but in the FIBA Europe Cup games he failed to prove as brightly as in the game against Zenit. Hill was one of the main heroes of PARMA’s first game with Kalev this season — then he scored 14 points ( 4 of 8 3-pointers) in just 20 minutes, and PARMA confidently won.
CSKA (Russia) — Astana (Kazakhstan)
Time: 15:00 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 22 games, CSKA — 22 wins
CSKA: The thrilling game with UNICS has already become legendary, and affect the physical and psychological conditions of both teams. As a result, both UNICS and CSKA lost their games in the Euroleague. The Army team, who were finally led by Itoudis, looked obviously tired with Maccabi and again performed without Tornike Shengelia and Will Clyburn. However, even despite this, CSKA remains the obvious favorite in the duel with Astana — for all 10 years in the United League, the Nur-Sultan team have never been able to beat CSKA.
Astana: The main factor that Astana should focus on is fatigue and problems with the Army team roster. For example, in the game against Maccabi, CSKA could not guard Scotty Wilbekin, who scored 23 points. Astana has an equally dangerous player – Anthony Hickey. However, the guests’ chances to win are still objectively small, and they were clearly not increased by Jaylen Barford transfer to Lokomotiv Kuban last week. Recall that Barford, with 23 points per game, tops the list of the best scoring players in the United League.
Who to follow: Alexey Shved did not show his maximum in 4 February games of the United League and Euroleague. The game against Astana can become one of the key for the guard in the season — at least for the self-confidence.
UNICS (Russia) — Enisey (Russia)
Time: 17:00 (Moscow time)
Location: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivalry history: 16 games, UNICS — 13 wins, Enisey – 3 wins.
UNICS: For UNICS, the exhausting game in Moscow did not remain without consequences. UNICS retained the 1st place in the standings in the United League, but on Friday lost to Crvena Zvezda in the Euroleague. The Kazan team made a lot of mistakes: for example, Mario Hezonja and Marco Spisu scored 35 points for two, but made 11 turnovers out of 18 team. The game with Enisey will also certainly not be easy, although Ensiey has not won against UNICS since December 2019. Interestingly, after that win, the Krasnoyarsk team beat their the Kazan team and rose to 4th place in the standings — now the teams are solving radically different tasks.
Enisey: The Siberian team have practically nowhere to retreat. The sudden loss from the last-placed Tsmoki-Minsk was a real shock — for the first time in the history of the United League, one of the teams managed to came back after loosing by 27 points. Complicating the situation of the Krasnoyarsk team is the fact that Drazen Anzulovic still cannot take the place of the Head Coach back. Meanwhile, the further schedule is not easy — the team will have games with 3 playoff zone teams and an road game in Poland.
What to follow: although UNICS is leading in the championship, and Enisey is trying to stay in 8th place, the 1st game of these teams in the season was not an easy walk for the Kazan team. With great difficulty, they won in overtime with the shot made by Lorenzo Brown. And although UNICS has gained momentum since then, Enisey can take advantage of the fatigue and limited rotation of Velimir Perasovic’s team and again give battle to a formidable opponent.
