Zenit (St. Petersburg) vs. CSKA (Moscow)
Place: St. Petersburg, CSC Arena
Time: March 1, 19:30 (Moscow time)
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Igra, League website.
Everything you need to know
CSKA is the leader and has not given up the first place in the standings to its rivals since the opening game of the 2023/24 season. The Army team started with 9 straight wins and kept a decent distance from all opponents for a long time, but in 2024 slowed down, got 3 of their 5 losses in the season. CSKA came to the game with Zenit with 2 straight losses.
Unlike the Moscow team, Zenit didn’t start the season so confidently, but gradually returned to the Top 4. However, that hardly suits the St. Petersburg team, who is only aiming for the very Top. Xavier Pascual team lacks stability: Zenit ended the first stage with 2 lost games to Pari Nizhny Novgorod and Enisey, and in the only game of the second stage beat the Krasnodar team (106:67).
Why can win…
Zenit: The main advantage was and is the defense. No matter how unstable the performance, it is almost always safe to say: the team’s defense will be at its best. The stats prove it: Zenit let opponents score 72.9 points.
In addition, by the end of winter, all key players were healthy, and the February game against Loko showed that Zenit is incredibly dangerous. But you can’t say that about CSKA: Casper Ware is out with an injury, and Will Barton, who was signed in January, was not included in the team’s roster. And those losses could be the X-factor of the game in St. Petersburg.
CSKA: The Moscow team has declined compared to the start of the season and has actually lost more games in 1 month than in the previous 3. So the two-week All-Star Game break should help Emil Rajkovic team to reboot. CSKA wasted no time: the team traveled to Turkey and held a series of frendlies with local teams, including Anadolu Efes.
On the one hand, the Army team doesn’t look like the machine that was able to beat Zenit twice in the season without Ware. On the other hand, Casper himself is not having his best season, and CSKA has gotten a lot of wins through team play. That’s why the Moscow team need to focus on team actions in St. Petersburg. Moreover, CSKA is the League leader in assists per game (20.3).
Standings motivation
Zenit must not lose – it risks falling behind Lokomotiv Kuban by 2 wins. Moreover, Enisey and PARMA share 5th place in Group A and are only 2 games away from Zenit.
CSKA doesn’t need a loss, either, as UNICS could get closer in the standings. In addition, the Moscow team risk a third straight loss, something that has never happened with Emil Rajkovic. The last such series happened in the Finals 2022, when Zenit won 3 games in a row against CSKA.
