St. Petersburg and Kazan hosts the regular season games on Tuesday.
UNICS (Kazan) – Avtodor (Saratov)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
UNICS: The Kazan team spent the first month of the season very powerfully, winning all 6 games even without the injured Daryl Macon. The coaching staff managed to quickly establish team chemistry and this mutual understanding on the court is the basis to win. UNICS is a clear favorite against Avtodor and the Saratov team only surpasses by rebounds. However, if the Kazan team continue to score with the 54% of their shots, then the rebounding will not be the key.
Avtodor: The Saratov team started the season with the win over Astana, but in the next 5 games they got 4 losses and are now in 9th place in the standings. Avtodor problems do not end there: team leader Nikita Mikhailovskii has suffered an ankle injury and will definitely not play in Kazan. Without him, Avtodor chances to win the Volga Derby are noticeably reduced. For sure, Ryan Boatwright will have more time with the ball, but he knows how to play in clutch moment for the team.
Zenit (Saint Petersburg) – CSKA (Moscow)
Time: 20:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Saint Petersburg, SIBUR Arena
Broadcast: Match! Igra, League website
Zenit: Perhaps this game will be one of the key ones, if not in the first round of the regular season, then at least in the fall. A repeat of last season’s final, a repeat of the SuperCup final, a rivalry between two excellent guards Heurtel and Shved, a coaching rivalry – there are enough subheadings here. One of the main questions is whether Zenit bigmen managed to recover for the Game of the Week? After all, the coaching staff led by Xavi Pascual did not use 4 front court players: Richard Solomon, Artem Klimenko, Andrey Zubkov and Sergey Toropov. Without them, it will be extremely difficult to guard Milutinov – Jean-Charles duo. At the same time, Zenit has enough high-quality players who can turn on at a crucial moment – just remember Thomas Wimbush game winning shot at the end of the SuperCup 2022 final.
CSKA: The Army team went through October without losses and showed fantastic efficiency in offense, scoring almost 100 points per game (98.3). However, the opponents were not at Zenit level and today in St. Petersburg Emil Rajkovic team will have the first real test in the new season. CSKA is having injured Semen Antonov, but the Moscow team has a fairly wide roster – no one spends more than 22 minutes on the court. Of course, Shved – Milutinov duo will take the first roles, but do not forget about Casper Ware, who brought huge problems to the St. Petersburg team defense last season.
