UNICS sends CSKA to the 4th place, Rajkovicj & Avtodor – in Top-3, the 1st Tsmoki win. Week results

The week is the gift of the United League season.

UNICS defeats CSKA for the first time in 2 years and takes the lead in the season

The most anticipated game of the autumn took place in Kazan: CSKA came to visit UNICS. The last season finalists and the leaders of the standings now met in the Basket Hall to determine who is more worthy of the first place in the table.

CSKA center Nikola Milutinov returned to roster after an injury, but the Army team still arrived in Kazan in an incomplete squad – without Hackett, Voigtmann and Grigonis. However, even with such losses, the guests dictated their tempo on the floor in the first 20 minutes of the game.

UNICS did not look the best at the start of the game: missed a 0-8 run, could not score points for almost 5 minutes and got 10 turnovers in the quarter. Fortunately for the hosts, and the Army team did not demonstrate their maximum in the offence:

During the second quarter, CSKA broke away by 12 and looked a little stronger than their rivals:

By the halftime, UNICS slightly reduced the gap, but immediately after a 15-minute pause again let CSKA score 10 points. And at that moment, the Kazan team showed character: they did not allow CSKA to increase the lead, but instead got close to the distance of 1 three-pointer.

What happened to the 20/21 season Champions in the 4th quarter? In the last 5 minutes of the game, they scored only 4 points, and even those were from the free-throw line. At this time, UNICS took the lead for the first time in the game and did not give away the advantage.

The  key players of the Game of the week became Isaiah Canaan and Mario Hezonja – they scored 46 out of 69 team points:

Kazan won the first victory over CSKA since December 2019 and became the sole leaders in the standings. But for the army, this is the second defeat in November. At the end of the week, CSKA skipped ahead of Zenit and Avtodor was on the 4th line.

Avtodor pulls out the game against Astana and shares 2nd place with Zenit

The game in Saratov was interesting with the background: Avtodor’s head coach Emil Rajkovicj has been leading Astana for the last 3 years. “I have respect for my former colleagues at Astana and for the Kazakh players of the team, but only a win in this home game will be a good result for Avtodor,” the Macedonian specialist said before the game.

But Astana also had its own plans to travel to Saratov – the Kazakh team planned to pick up the W and get into the Top 3. In the first half, the guests did everything to complete the game objective: they scored 51 points for the half, broke away by 15 points. And the Barford– Hickey duo scored 31 points:

But Avtodor returned immediately after the galftime and took the lead thanks to Emil Rajkovicj’s defense. Both teams deserved to win, and they confirmed it in the end by making difficult shots in the last minute. The decisive shot was made by Philip Scrubb and Avtodor:

Avtodor won 4 out of 5 games at the start of the season and moved in the Top-3 of the standings, missing Zenit to 2nd place only by additional stats!

Comeback of the week happend in Krasnodar

Enisey, which dropped out of the playoff zone at the end of last week, passionately wanted to climb higher in the standings. This desire was displayed on the scoreboard from the first moments of the game against Loko: at the end of the 7th minute of the game, the Siberian team won with a score 27:10!

However, even before the halftime, the Krasnodar team drawed the score, and in many ways this is Jonathan Motley accomplishment. The forward scored 20 points in the first half of the game and helped his team get back into the game.

And finally it turned out to seize the initiative in the 3rd quarter: Enisey scored only 13 points and gave the lead to rivals. But instead of giving up, the Krasnoyarsk team staged a chase and, together with Loko, held one of the most resultative final quarters in the history of the League – 70 points!

However, Loko still got the W, at the same time confirming the status of the most attacking team of the season: 101 points against Enisey and 95.4 on average per game. And Jonathan Motley with 28 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks entered the Team of the Week.

The first Tsmoki win was in overtime

This Sunday will surely be marked in the calendar as one of the most interesting game days in the history of the regular season of the League. After all, the plot turned out to be amazing in Minsk: overtime and the first win of the Belarusian team in a month and a half!

Kalev arrived in Minsk in the status of the team that beat CSKA. But at the same time, the Tallinn team not only did not look like clear favorites – they had the role of laggards both after the 1st quarter and by the halftime.

The game was really quite equal: the leader changed 21 times, another 15 times the scoreboard recorded a draw. And overtime became a logical continuation of the game. But in the extra 5 minutes, Tsmoki were stronger, having got the first win and not allowing Kalev to win the 3rd game in a row.

Tsmoki forward Yauheni Beliankou updated his career high, finishing the game with 24 points, and got into the Team of the week. And Angelo Warner became the hero of the ending: he scored 14 of his 18 points in the 4th quarter and overtime.

Three-points rain in St. Petersburg

Taking advantage of CSKA loss, Zenit won its home game and rose to 2nd place in the standings, equaling Avtodor in stats. On Monday, Xavi Pascual squad did not leave any chances for Zielona Gora. And although the difference in the final score – 97:80 – does not look so big, during the game Zenit advantage reached 30 points.

Zenit’s key weapon was three-pointers: the St. Petersburg team hit 18 long-range shots, updating the season high and the team best for all time in the League.

Sergey Karasev became the most resultative. The forward played his best game since April 2018, scoring 25 points, and 7 three-pointers – a career high repeat.

Strebkov had the best game of the season, Nizhny Novgorod has the win in the 4th quarter

Nizhny Novgorod hosted PARMA in one of the last games of the week. Both teams felt comfortable in not too fast basketball, so the performance of the game was not high. The Perm Krai team arrived at the game almost in full squad – only the head coach Kazys Maksvytis missed the game. Probably, it was the coach absence did not allow PARMA to take the win away from Nizhny Novgorod.

After all, for 30 minutes PARMA played on equally with their opponent, and at the start of the 4th quarter they even led by 4. But in the last 5 minutes of the game, PARMA was able to score only 3 points, gave  a chance to Nizhny organise 17-3 run. As a result, Nizhny Novgorod got the  win – 79:65.

After breaking his arm, Nizhny Novgorod forward Anton Astapkovich returned to the lineup – he scored 10 points and 5 rebounds. However, Ivan Strebkov became the leader of the NN offence. To beat PARMA, the guard needed to play the best game of the season – 23 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals.

Poster of the week

Sergey Toropov did not notice PARMA players defence:

Lorenzo Brown is the fans’ September-October MVP

During the week, VTB United League with the Olimpbet betting company held a vote for the September and October MVP title.

The fans chose UNICS guard Lorenzo Brown – 20.8% voted for him. Avtodor guard Kenny Chery is in second place (19.5%), Mikhail Kulagin from Nizhny Novgorod is in third place (17.1%).

Team of the Week

Isaiah Canaan and Mario Hezonja helped UNICS beat CSKA for the first time in 2 years.
Ivan Strebkov was the most effective Nizhny Novgorod player in the winning game against PARMA.
Yauheni Beliankou updated his career high in points and became a key player in the forst Tsmoki win in the season.
Jonathan Motley initiated Loko comeback against Enisey.

Top-10 of the Week

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