Moscow and Kazan will host regular season games on Monday.
UNICS (Kazan) – PARMA-PARI (Perm)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: TV Start Triumph, Match! Igra, League website
UNICS: On Thursday, the Kazan team lost for the first time in the season and now they probably want to win in front of their fans. The chance is good: the game will be at home and the opponent has already has two consecutive losses. Yes, PARMA-PARI likes to play aggressively in defense, but this UNICS knows perfectly how to deal with pressure. Most likely, the Kazan team players will act very tight – after all, in the last game they let opponents score more than 90 points for the first time in the season and probably worked on the mistakes.
PARMA-PARI: The Perm team started the game well in Samara, but in the second half they noticeably slowed down and lost to the League newcomer. This loss pushed Evgeny Pashutin team back to 8th place. To break into the first group at the second regular season stage, you need to start a new winning streak. Of course, this will not be so easy to do in Kazan, because UNICS has not lost at home this season. However, the coaching staff has Roberson-Allen duo, which has already proved more than once during this season. It is important not to let the opponents to score a lot and special attention should be focused on Nenad Dimitrijevic – the Macedonian guard is the playmaker with 14.1 points and 7.4 assists per game.
CSKA (Moscow) – Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod)
Time: 19:30 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Moscow, Megasport
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
CSKA: Last week, the Army team won the 9th game in a row beating UNICS and now they are the sole leader of the standings. Moreover, only CSKA has no defeats in the season yet. Emil Rajkovic, who headed the team in the summer, has already built a system in which dedication, mutual understanding and respect are important. As a result, CSKA is not only in 1st place in the standings, but also leads in all major stats (except for steals and blocks). In the game against Nizhny Novgorod, CSKA will also be the favourite and one of the most interesting stories will be Anton Astapkovich plays versus the former team. The forward was Pari NN player for 4 years, revealed his talent there and in the summer moved to CSKA.
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: The Volga team continue to fight for the Top 6 and every win counts. Yes, CSKA is stronger in many aspects, but in previous seasons, Pari NN has already beaten the Moscow team more than once. The situation is slightly complicated by Dragan Apic absence – the forward added power to Nizhny Novgorod in the paint as offensively and defensiveley. If the Serbian fowart is not ready to play with CSKA, then Nikola Jovanovic and Aleksandr Chadov, will have a lot of work to do because they will have to guard Nikola Milutinov. And in general, the game with CSKA is the best test for Pari NN defense and the result of this game will largely depend on the Volga team defensive plays.
