Yekaterinburg, Perm, Astana and Moscow will host 4 regular season games on Wednesday.
Uralmash (Yekaterinburg) vs Samara (Samara)
Time: 19:30 (17:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Yekaterinburg, DIVS.
Broadcast: Start, League website
Uralmash: Last week the team took a revenge on another United League newcomer Runa for 2 losses in the first round. Uralmash took the lead from the first quarter and played one of the best games. The team offense had no trouble dealing with Runa defense, scoring 102 points – the team second-high total this season. With 6 wins in the last 6 games, Uralmash continues to be one of the 2 hottest teams (the other is UNICS with a similar streak).
Samara: The Volga team along with Uralmash continue to claim first place in Group B, but do not look like favorites. While the Yekaterinburg team is enjoying a long winning streak, Samara is interspersing impressive wins (against PARMA for example) with disappointing losses. The Volga team made up for an extremely disappointing game against Runa, then Samara defense allowed 98 points with a win over MBA. This time, however, a much more serious opponent awaits and Samara already knows how to beat Uralmash. The bigmen duel will be especially important – Octavius Ellis, the League leader in double-doubles (9), will face James Thompson. Thompson had his 4th of the season double-double last week and was nincluded in the Team of the Round.
PARMA (Perm) vs Zenit (St. Petersburg)
Time: 20:00 (18:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: Match! Igra, League website
PARMA: Evgeny Pashutin team has been a major threat to top teams this season. The game against Enisey was the best scoring of the season and ended with the first hundred. B.J. Johnson made a good performance and headed list of PARMA best scorers in a single season. Despite all that, Evgeny Pashutin team should be very serious: the current opponent is the only Big Four team that PARMA has failed to beat this season.
Zenit: Zenit won 2 games against the Perm team in the first stage. First game had ended with a 24-point difference. The second game was equal and the St. Petersburg team only got the win in overtime. March also started off well for Xavier Pascual team, with a bright win over CSKA. Zenit defense limited the League’s best offensive team to score only 71 points, Trent Frazier and Bojan Dubljevic combined for 39 points off the bench. Zenit has shown excellent defense throughout the season, but has perfected it in the last 6 games, only allowing 91 points once against Enisey. PARMA will have a serious challenge – despite scoring 101 points against Enisey, the perm team rarely spoil their fans with offensive performances, scoring an average of less than 80 points.
Astana (Astana) vs MINSK (Minsk)
Time: 20:00 (18:00 Moscow time)
Place: Kazakhstan, Astana, SC Velotrek
Broadcast: League website
Astana: The return after a break did not go well – the Kazakh team lost to Nizhny Novgorod, it became the fourth consecutive loss. Remarkably, the Kazakh team failed to score more than 70 points. In fact, Royce Hamm is the only offensively stable Astana players, who somehow always scores his 15-16 points. The other team’s leaders Markell Johnson and Carvel Anderson alternate good and bad games.
MINSK: Although the hosts is considered the formal favorite, MINSK has the right to hope that it will finally be able to get its first win of the season. Astana is in a crisis that the new coach has yet to overcome. At the first stage, Astana won 2 games against the Belarussian team, but MINSK fought to the end both times: in November the team lost in the end, and in December lost only in overtime. Last round Minsk lost to Avtodor, but it was understandable: the team came to Saratov with a short roster, and as a result Avtodor simply outrebounded the weakened team. In addition, Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson had his worst game of the season, scoring 2 points in 25 minutes. In the game with Astana, MINSK will try to avoid such opponent’s rebounding dominance – it is likely that center Zach Smith will make his debut.
MBA (Moscow) vs Avtodor (Saratov)
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website.
MBA: A big win over Nizhny before the All-Star Game could have been a good foundation for the future, but after the break the Moscow team lost to Samara and once again made it extremely difficult to get into the play-in. Only Daniil Kasatkin scored 21 points for the third time this season and Vladislav Trushkin can truly take credit for the game against Samara. The rest of the team leaders played clearly below their capabilities. MBA is still among the at the bottom in points scored per game, ahead of only Nizhny and MINSK. Vasily Karasev complained about this in a recent interview, saying that MBA is not scoring as many points as he would like. And although the coach expressed hope that the break was good for the team, in the game against Samara the team again failed score more than 70 points.
Avtodor: Milenko Bogicevic team can be considered the main pursuer of Uralmash and Samara in the battle for Group B leadership. After starting February with a 42-point win over MINSK, Avtodor has already extended its winning streak to 4 games. Only Runa was able to offer truly serious resistance. In the last game, Avtodor literally crushed MINSK, dominated in the paint. Of course, MBA is unlikely to let the guests go wild like that: the Moscow team is among the Top 4 in rebounding (35.0 per game). In addition, the team may be a tough team for Avtodor this season – MBA won the first game, and lost the second in the end with a 3-point difference. Still, the both teams current shape allow to consider the guests the favorites.
