Moscow and Samara will host 2 regular season games on Saturday.
CSKA (Moscow, Russia) vs. Astana (Astana, Kazakhstan)
Time: 14:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website.
CSKA: The Army team approach Saturday’s game as the regular season sole leaders. CSKA is probably eager to extend their winning streak to 7 games. The Moscow team has a long and successful rivalry history with Astana – since 2013, the teams have played 26 games and CSKA has won all 26. However, there was some not-so-good news from the Army team: team captain Nikita Kurbanov decided to suspend his career for personal reasons. Kurbanov played 22 minutes per game this season, and although the forward didn’t score a lot, his contribution to CSKA’s defense and organization cannot be underestimated. Semen Antonov will be the new captain of the team.
Astana: After the win over Nizhny, the Kazakh team continued to delight their fans with confident game versus Avtodor. Astana’s defense in that game worked like clockwork – Oleg Kiselev team allowed their opponents to score only 62 points, making us remember the times when the team was led by Emil Rajkovic. Now the Macedonian coach, once voted the League Coach of the Year for his work with Astana, is already heading CSKA. Royce Hamm can be pointed out from Astana as he has shined in the team. In the game against Avtodor, Hamm set a career-high with 13 rebounds. As CSKA has probels in tha paint sometimes, Astana center will have an opportunity to prove himself.
Samara (Samara, Russia) vs Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar, Russia)
Time: 18:00 (17:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Samara, SKK Dvorets Sporta.
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
Samara: Samara demonstrate that last season’s failure was a mistake and reaching conclusions were made. A three-game winning streak has Samara in the Top 4 of the regular season. Head coach Drazen Anzulovic has been out since October 19 due to knee surgery, so both the win over MINSK and powerful UNICS were led by assistant Stipe Kulis. Anzulovic should be back at the team by the end of the week, but Kulis will still be preparing the Volga team for the game with Loko. However, judging by Samara results, that won’t make things any easier for the Krasnodar team.
Lokomotiv Kuban: Loko can feel easier as the team defeated Zenit in an incredibly tense game. Zakhar Vedischev said that this win would be a good starting point for Loko to begin a new story. But the Krasnodar team needs to hurry up to start writing that new story – their palce in the standings is still pretty shaky (Loko is still outside the Top 10). While Vedischev is gaining shape at a rapid pace, Loko most dangerous offensive player Jaylen Barford is still not getting his shot back – in the game against Zenit, he once again made 1 of 8 three-pointers. The good news is that team leader DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell is back and the game against Zenit showed that he is still far from optimal shape in offense, but he is another strong option for Loko defense.
