Looking back on the biggest stories from the first days of 2019/20 season.
Enisey beat CSKA for the first time in League’s history
In the summer, Krasnoyarsk made huge changes: Drazen Anzulovic replaced Oleg Okulov as a head coach, all foreigners left the club, but Enisey managed to retain key Russian players.
Team’s first challenge was CSKA, and Krasnoyarsk passed this test. For the first time in 9 VTB League seasons Krasnoyarsk beat the army club 80:71. Anzulovic’s side had 14-point lead in the last quarter, CSKA tried to come back, but were stopped by Denis Zakharov:
Davion Berry was the MVP. Enisey guard made his debut in the League with 23 points and 5 three-pointers getting a sensational win for his team.
The fact
For the first time in League history current champion lost the starting game.
Mike James is CSKA new star?
Euroleague 2018/19 best sniper was not really successful in Krasnoyarsk with only 11 points and 27% FG. Neither did he star in home game against PARMA with only 7 points before the halftime break.
As the buzzer was getting cloer, James found his rhythm and destroyed the guests’ hopes scoring 13 points in the 4th quarter. He scored all 13 points in 4 minutes, and no other CSKA player scored in this period. PARMA could not response to this performance.
However, PARMA deserved a credit: they were leading in the first half, and were close to take the lead in the final quarter. Maxim Grigoryev led PARMA repeating his personal best of three-pointers (6) and exceeded the level of 20 points (21) for the first time since 2015.
Khimki set the records in season-opener
In the first game Khimki hosted Zielona Gora at VTB Arena. The guests were not a piece of cake and nearly came back from -16. Stefan led Khimki in the absence of key players: Alexey Shved, Anthony Gill, and Chris Kramer. The Serbian who came to the club only 3 days before the season was critical factor to Khimki win: 16 points, 9 assists and 3 of 4 three pointers.
Khimki set a number of attendance records: 5742 fans is the best result of Khimki in VTB League, and the best for season-opener of the whole League!
For the first time the game was played with Ecoball – official ball of 2019/20 season made of recycled plastic.
But VTB Arena itself hosted even more: 12 thousand at the All-Star 2019. The next All-Star will also be played at VTB Arena, keep up with the news.
Tallinn suffers injuries
Kalev had lost a number of players before the season even started. Hosting Khimki, Kalev could only rely on one foreigner – Aigars Skele. The Estonians made a good start, and Tnael Kurbas’ and-one dunk was a highlight of the game:
Khimki gradually took the lead to take the easy win 86:63 getting to the first place of the standings.
Zenit tested in Poland
St Petersburg had massive renewal in the summer – only 3 players remained from the last season. However, Joan Plaza’s side managed to get a big win in Poland against Zielona Gora 92:67.
+25 is the largest differential of the first week. However, the head coach was not particularly happy: “The number of mistakes we made scares me. These were unnecessary errors. Yes, that was the first game when you try to get used to your style, but I still can’t explain this number of errors.”
New League masks for Stories available on Instagram
Last week the League announced its first mask on Instagram. It allows users to create stories with their favorite team. The mask was tested by Andrey Zubkov (Zenit), Lukasz Koszarek (Zielona Gora), and Sam Dekker and Dmitriy Kulagin (Loko).
Team of the week
Stefan Jovic (14.0 points and 7.5 assists) and Jonas Jerebko (11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds) helped Khimki get two wins.
Davion Berry (23 points and 3 assists) and Tomislav Zubcic (18 points and 5 rebounds) led Enisey to sensational win over CSKA.
Zenit center Gustavo Ayon showed his perfect conditions scoring 16 points and 3 rebounds against Zielona Gora.
Standings
📊 Турнирная таблица после первой недели сезона
📊 Standings after Week #1 pic.twitter.com/WjwkFFQ1oU
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) October 2, 2019
