Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod will host regular season games on Friday.
Uralmash (Yekaterinburg, Russia) vs Samara (Samara, Russia)
Time: 19:00 (17:00 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Yekaterinburg, GAUSO “Dvorets Igrovykh Vidov Sporta”.
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Uralmash: Despite a great game by Octavius Ellis, who made his third double-double in a row and set a career-high in rebounds (17), Uralmash lost to Astana last week and dropped to 9th place. Uralmash is right next to Samara (5 wins and 10 losses in 10 games), so if the team win, they will be back in the Playoffs zone. Samara has also problems lately, so the hosts can be considered the favourite. The duel between bigmen Ellis and James Thompson promises to be one of the key in the game.
Samara: Having lost 3 games in a row, Samara ended to losing series with a win over Nizhny, but it cannot be called indicative – Nizhny is in a clear crisis. In any case, the Volga team offense performed at a high level in this game: 85 points scored – Samara third-highest total of the season. However, Drazen Anzulovic team was far from flawless on defense, allowing Nizhny to get back into the game; Anzulovic himself paid attention to this aspect of the game before the game with Nizhny Novgorod. As a result, Samara, which led by 11 with 3 minutes to go, had a hard time holding off Nizhny comeback. Uralmash, which has no particular rotation problems, may not forgive Samara for another loss.
Pari Nizhny Novgorod (Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) vs. MBA (Moscow, Russia)
Time: 19:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Nizhny Novgorod, KRK Nagorniy
Broadcast: Match! Igra, TV Start, League website
Pari Nizhny Novgorod: Nizhny bad results should already be of great concern to the coaching staff. The loss to Samara was their 6th – the last time Nizhny won on October 15, more than a month ago. Zoran Lukic team has an absolutely brutal schedule ahead of them: after the game with MBA, they will face Zenit, UNICS and CSKA and be able to take a little break from the top teams only against MINSK. Even more damaging to Nizhny Novgorod chances is another bad news – the team lost Andrey Vorontsevich. According to Zoran Lukic, the vet will miss at least a month.
MBA: The Moscow team hasn’t won 2 games in a row yet. Vasily Karasev team defeated MINSK in the last round (by the way, it was the biggest win in MBA history), so by the logic of this season, they should lose now. But, of course, it’s unlikely that the Moscow team will want to follow such path. Although MBA roster is also far from good (one of the team’s brightest players, Daniil Kasatkin, was out on November 1, and Makar Konovalov also broke down in the same game), the Moscow team look much more stable than their opponents right now.
