Krasnodar will host the regular season game on Thursday.
Lokomotiv Kuban (Krasnodar) – Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod)
Time: 16:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnodar, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Lokomotiv Kuban:
On Thursday, direct rivals will play in Krasnodar – both Loko and Nizhny Novgorod are on the 5th place. Nizhny won the previous game: Loko led by 13 in the first quarter, but failed to keep the lead and lost by 14 points. The main problem was turnovers, the team made 25 in 1 game and this time Alexander Sekulich team need to handle the ball much more carefully. However, the Krasnodar team roster has become stronger: Josh Gray and Chris Horton joined the team and already played. At the same time, immediately after the New Year, Loko announced the parting with Darral Willis, its best rebounding player. And in a game with Nizhny Novgorod, this may become a problem.
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Loko and NN are close to getting into the Top 6 of the first stage of the regular season and a win in a face-to-face game will bring one of the teams closer to this. But if Loko January schedule looks simpler, then a lose in Krasnodar can create a lot of problems for Nizhny Novgorod in the future. Fortunately, Pari NN is going to the road game without injured players and hope to win. In December, the Volga team demonstrated a powerful defense, letting opponents score 67.8 points, and this should lead Zoran Lukic team to success. In addition, Pari NN is simply need to take advantage of Darral Willis absence — after all, Nizhny Novgorod has a powerful front court with Nikola Jovanovic, Dragan Apic and Maxim Salash.
Rivalry: Jaylen Barford vs Jermaine Love. Both guards are the offensive leaders of their teams and are in the Top 10 of the League best scorers: Barford scores 17.4 points, Love — 15.8. In the October game in Nizhny, Jaylen and Jermaine also became the most scoring players of the game with high efficiency. Pari NN guard finished that game with 28 points with 10 of 17 from the game, Loko guard had 23 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists by the end.
