Perm and Kazan will host 2 regular season games on Sunday.
PARMA-PARI (Perm) – Avtodor (Saratov)
Time: 17:00 (15:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Perm, UDS Molot
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
PARMA-PARI: The Perm team started the second stage of the regular season with 3 wins in a row and took a confident lead in Group B, but before the All-Star game break, the team lost to Enisey. PARMA-PARI retains a good chance of reaching the playoffs, but the game with Avtodor will be extremely important, because the Saratov team is not just a direct competitor – they can catch up with PARMA in the standings. However, this season PARMA-PARI has beaten Avtodor twice and will certainly try to extend this series. In addition, Ryan Boatwright will come out with a motivation against the former team: the guard started the season in Saratov, but after the New Year he moved to PARMA-PARI.
Avtodor: The Saratov team standings place is slightly worse than that PARMA-PARI has – Avtodor lags behind the Group B leaders in number of wins. It is impossible to lose in Perm, because this will seriously lower their chances to get in the playoffs. The Saratov team was strengthened by Sean Armand, an experienced guard who even played for Zenit in the 2018/19 season. Avtodor needs to be prepared not only for a tense defense, but also for noise – PARMA announced sold-out. There is no doubt that this game will be incredibly tense: in January, the game between Avtodor and PARMA-PARI ended in overtime with 2 threes in 3 seconds!
UNICS (Kazan) – Zenit (Saint Petersburg)
Time: 17:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, Match! Strana, League website
UNICS: In the last game before the All-Star break, the Kazan team defeated CSKA and revived the hope of winning the regular season. UNICS needs to keep winning. The game with Zenit will be incredibly difficult, and yet the Kazan team is the favorite. Firstly, because UNICS beat the St. Petersburg team twice already this season. Secondly, everyone in healthy, but guests have porblems: Thomas Heurtel has been out indefinitely due to injury. The Kazan team will certainly try to take advantage of the opponents problems to continue CSKA pursuit. In addition, Jalen Reynolds showed a phenomenal game against Zenit both times this season: 22 points in October and 26 points in December.
Zenit: If UNICS continues to pursue CSKA, then Xavi Pascual’s team has only theoretical chances to rise higher from third place. In turn, Zenit needs to think about how to ger far away from Pari NN. And the win in Kazan will help a lot. UNICS has better stats, and if Heurtel really misses the game, it will be very difficult. In this case, Trent Frazier can tru the leading role. The guard has already shown what he can do, becoming the best scorer against CSKA, and is certainly ready for another performance in the United League.
