Trushkin’s threes are saving Enisey in Nur-Sultan, McCollum pulls out in Perm, Avtodor is staying on the top. Results of the week

Trushkin’s threes are saving Enisey in Nur-Sultan, McCollum pulls out in Perm, Avtodor is staying on the top. Results of the week

A week of heroic comebacks and winning streaks.

Zenit is secured in the Top 3

The Game of the Week was scheduled in St. Petersburg: the 6th team of the League – Nizhny Novgorod – came to visit the 3rd. Zenit won with a fairly large 16 points difference. At the end of 40 minutes, the St. Petersburg team win looked natural. Xavi Pascual’s team was noticeably stronger on rebounding (30 vs.11), more precisely in 3-point shots (62% vs.31%) and shots in general (60% vs.49%), won each of the quarters of the game.

Nizhny Novgorod forward Anton Astapkovich showed his best basketball of the season: 23 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals. But this was not enough to inflict Zenit’s 1st loss since October 4. The St. Petersburg team won the 5th game in a row and strengthened the 3rd place in the standings.

Jordan Mickey had an outstanding game: he scored a 3-pointer and felt quite comfortable in the paint, scoring 20 points in the end with only 1 missed shot from the game.

But Zenit would not have achieved this win without Conner Frankamp. The guard, who had previously scored no more than 5 points in the United League, scored 20 with 4 out of 5 from deep. At the same time, Frankamp became the best in Zenit in assists (6) and effectivity (22).

Comeback of the Week

It will be imposssible to say that PARMA successfully plays against Loko – the Perm team have only 1 win in this 5-year rivalry. Nevertheless, the last time Loko beat PARMA on a visit almost 3 years ago – and that game also cannot be called simple.

PARMA started the game convincingly: 2:0, 17:2, 22:6…

The hosts demonstrated an unusual high performance and controlled the game. And as soon as Loko barely leveled the game, PARMA immediately restored a major advantage. For example, Alexandr Platunov completed the 1st quarter with a buzzer-beater:

And the teams left for the halftime after Adas Jushkevicius’ 3-poiner buzzer beater:

During the first half, Loko trailed 20 points, and in the 3rd quarter the difference in the score reached 15 points. But the Krasnodar team had literally 10 minutes to neutralize all PARMA efforts. Greg Whittington started the comeback, scoring 2 from distance.

And then Errick McCollum’s time began: the guard scored 11 points in a row in the middle of the 4th quarter, and put Loko ahead for the first time in the game. As a result, McCollum scored 13 in the last quarter and 26 in total, becoming the most resultative player of the game. And his team, having seized the lead, did not give it up until the final buzzer.

This comeback was the biggest for Loko this season. The Krasnodar team rose to the 5th place in the standings, overtaking Nizhny Novgorod

Overtime of the Week

Another comeback this week took place in Nur-Sultan, where Astana hosted Enisey.

The Kazakh team got off to a strong start and broke away by 10 points. The guests managed to get closer to the halftime, but failed 3rd quarter seemed to take away the chances to winning this game.

After Mark Tikhonenko’s accurate shot at the beginning of the 4th quarter, Astana created a 15-point advantage – the maximum in this game at that time. And in 38 seconds, the hosts felt comfortable, leading by 6 points. But Enisey literally managed to conduct 2 offensive possessions in 10 seconds, draw the score – and even tried to win. However, overtime was also good for the team, which trailed during the whole game:

For Enisey, this overtime was already the 3rd in seven games of the season. But if the Siberian team lost to UNICS and Avtodor, then in Nur-sultan they brought the matter to win – and came close to the playoff zone.

Winning streak of the Week

Avtodor was one step away from ending its 5-game winning streak. Although it would be more correct to say that Zielona Gora was close to its 1st win in the League since October 31.

Gora managed to dry up the best offense of the League, limiting Saratov to 8 points in the 2nd quarter and 27 in the half. Avtodor was also quite confident in defense:

But Zielona Gora still went on a halftime as the leader and with 12 points advantage. The best players of the team were Jaroslaw Ziskowski and Dragan Apic – this duo steadily and confidently completed the possession of the guests and scored 43 points by the end of the game…But it turned out to be too little to defeat Avtodor!

Throughout the 2nd half, the Saratov team gradually got closer to the opponent and 3.5 minutes before the end came out ahead after Zeljko Sakic shot. Charged with emotions from the fans in the stands, Avtodor increased in defense and in the end did not even give the guests a chance for overtime – 81:74.

At the same time, it is not so easy to point out the obvious leader of the Saratov team – 5 players scored 10 or more points. Perhaps the most effective was Kenny Chery – the guard repeated the season best in steals (5), also becoming the best in the game in points (18) and assists (8) with only one turnover.

That win over ZG provided Avtodor the 1st place in the standings. However, only for 1 day.

Defense of the week

UNICS was not going to give the lead in the season to Avtodor and sent the Saratov team back to the 2nd place the next day. In Kazan, Velimir Perasovic’s team easily beat Kalev – 71:54.

UNICS took the lead in the 2nd minute of the game and did not give up the lead until the end. Moreover– by the end of the 1st quarter, the difference in the score reached 10 points. The Kazan team got a double-digit lead throughout the game, completely turning off Kalev leaders.

As a result, UNICS had their best defensive game of the season without Lorenzo Brown, Isaiah Canaan and Artem Klimenko, let Kalev score only 54 points. This is the 3rd defensive stat in the 21/22 season and the 13th time in UNICS history when the oponnents scored less than 55 points. The win over Kalev was the 5th in a row for the Kazan team.

Story of the week

PARMA center Artem Zabelin recalls one of his best dunks in the League and talks about his attitude to dunks.

Team of the Week

Kenny Chery became the most effective player in the Saratov team’s 6th win in a row.
Conner Frankamp had the best game for Zenit – 20 points and 6 assists against Nizhny Novgorod.
Errick McCollum initiated Loko comeback in Perm: scored 13 points in the 4th quarter and 26 in total.
Mario Hezonja returned UNICS to the top of the standings with the spectacular game against Kalev.
Alexandr Gudumak got his most resultative game in the United League career, scoring 19 points against Astana.

Standings

UNICS holds the lead, Avtodor and Zenit are in the Top-3, Enisey is getting closer to the playoff zone.