Tsmoki have first home victory, Perm fans get really nervous. Week 15 in review

The main events of previous game week in VTB United league.

Krasnodar is unwinnable for Nizhny Novgorod

Game of the week took place in Krasnodar – Loko beat Nizhny Novgorod but the win wasn’t easy. Leading with 11 points the hosts lost their advantage in the end, and Nizhny managed to tie the game – they lacked accuracy. Novgorod’s spirit during decisive minutes was honoured by Loko’s forward Sam Dekker:

Besides the victory Kuban fans had one more reason to celebrate: Vitaly Fridzon recovered from the injury and played his first game in the league since October. Of course he hit his signature three-pointer:

Nizhny Novgorod can’t win in Krasnodar for a long time: last time they won in Baskat Hall was in January, 2014. However, only Avtodor managed to beat Loko at their homecourt. Evgeny Pashutin’s team shows best defense in the league at home allowing only 74,2 points per game on average.

PARMA and Astana made an overtime thriller at Molot

After a few roster changes – James Florence and Stephen Holt replaced Isaiah Whitehead and Coty Clarke – Astana significantly climbed up in standings, broke loss streak and took 2 consecutive wins coming back in play-off zone. However, the loss in Perm threw Emil Raikovikj’s squad of top-8.

Moreover, during the game PARMA’s lead was 18 points but Astana almost made its biggest comeback of the season. Jeremiah Hill scored 14 points in 4th quarter and attempted a game winner with equal score.

However, in overtime Perm got what they wanted making the fans happy with the 4th season victory. Nikolai Zhmako played his career-high game in VTB league: forward set highs in scoring (19 points) and efficiency (21 points).

Posterizer of the week

Mareks Mejeris had no mercy for Astana’s center Dusan Ristic:

Tsmoki gift Minsk first home victory of the season.

In the first half of the season Tsmoki were probably the unluckiest team of the league: the team lost 6 times with the differential of less than 5 points. This Sunday Minsk recovered – win over Avtodor looked confident and became the first home victory for Rostislav Vergun’s team this season.

Saratov didn’t show its best offense but probably made fans happy with spectacular plays. Firstly, Elgin Cook slamed it hard:

And then Isaiah Hicks recovered for his own miss:

Zielona Gora get its first victory over Enisey

Last season, Zielona Gora, which debuted in the League, twice lost to the Enisey, and the defeats turned out to be quite large. On Monday, the Polish team recovered, and gave the Krasnoyarsk team the first defeat in the history of the confrontation.

In Zielona Gora Drew Gordon was dominating: center showed best performance of the week with double-double of 24 points and 15 rebounds. In was the steal of Gordon in the ending which took away the last hope of Enisey for the comeback.

Quiz: can you name all the all-stars of the League?

All-Star Game 2020 in Moscow will be the 4th in the history of the League. Previously, star weekends took place in Sochi (2017), St. Petersburg (2018) and Moscow (2019). In the All Star Games 61 players and a coach participated. You have 15 minutes to name all the League All-Star players:

Play quiz

Fans made a choice for the All Star Game, now it’s the turn of the media

On January 9 the All-Star Game 2020 voting finished. Leaders are Mike James (CSKA) and Alexey Shved (Khimki). You can view fans choice here.

Now, media representatives will decide final rosters of the All-Star Russia and All-Star World teams.. «RIA News», Sport24 and «Izvestia» have already published their choices.

All-VTB United league team of the week

Top-10 plays og the week

Standings

Zielona Gora is making it to the 7th place, and only 2 wins separate last place and play-off zone!