The biggest news from the past seven days in the League.
Chase
Astana played twice this week, wrapping up the regular season. The Kazakh club faced two top-five teams in UNICS and Khimki and suffered back-to-back defeats. But that didn’t prevent Ilias Papatheodorou’s club from reaching the postseason.
Avtodor, the only team that could catch Astana, lost on the road in Krasnoyarsk to be eliminated from postseason contention. Thus, Astana becomes the 8th and final playoff participant, joining CSKA, Zenit, Khimki, Lokomotiv-Kuban, UNICS, Enisey and VEF.
Sellout
Parma set a new 2016-17 season attendance record in Thursday’s home game vs. CSKA. 7,136 fans showed up to see the Army Men roll to a 116-55 victory. Despite the defeat, basketball in Perm came out on top this weekend.
Final Intrigue
Lokomotiv-Kuban can still catch Khimki for 3rd place, the last bit of drama remaining in the regular season. Krasnodar defeated two Baltic clubs in three days–VEF and Kalev–to match Khimki’s 17-5 record. Moscow Region responded on Monday with a win over Astana, improving to 18-5. Khimki also holds the tie-breaker, which means that Lokomotiv must finish with a better record than Moscow Region to get the three-seed.
Comeback
Lokomotiv wasn’t the only team chasing Khimki last week. Moscow Region led by 21 points in the second half against Astana, before the home team nearly pulled off an incredible comeback. Ian Miller had a chance to put his team on top in the final seconds, trailing 88-87, but his layup didn’t drop and the visitors escaped with a 90-87 victory.
Astana vs Khimki one minute highlights 📹
Must-see clutch in Astana! pic.twitter.com/Wmg3TKGZiq
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) 17 апреля 2017 г.
Sniper
Khimki’s also involved in the race for scoring champion. Avtodor star Nick Minnerath set a personal scoring record in the League, dropping 37 points on Enisey to squeeze past Alexey Shved into 1st place (22.5 ppg vs. 22.4 ppg). That was the silver lining to an otherwise disappointing week for Saratov.
Sounding the Alarm
UNICS ended the regular season with a win over Astana, finishing in 5th place. Kazan leader Keith Langford isn’t too happy with his team entering the postseason:
“I’m disappointed. We need to get better on offense and defense. Are we ready for the playoffs? No. Everyone needs to get better during the break, starting with me. We need to do something. We’ll lose in the first round if we play like this.”
Effort
For Enisey, the game against Avtodor didn’t have any bearing on the standings. Krasnoyarsk had already clinched 6th place with VEF’s loss to Loko. But that didn’t prevent Oleg Okulov’s men from playing hard and rewarding the home fans with a win over Saratov.
Enisey is enjoying an historic season. To go with the 6th-place finish, Enisey has a club-record .565 winning percentage and has won five in a row, playing its best basketball of the season leading into the playoffs.
Send-Off
Tsmoki-Minsk’s new head coach Alexander Krutikov got his first win in the League. Playing in the final home game of the season, Minsk defeated Nizhny Novgorod by 25, a nice present for Krutikov and the home fans.
The Belarusians were eliminated from postseason contention several weeks ago, but could still beat out Kalev for 11th place. With one game remaining, the two teams are tied in the standings, though Kalev holds the tie-breaker.
Nostalgia
Parma released an amusing trailer before the game against CSKA, recalling the epic battles between Perm legends Ural-Great and the Army Men in the 2000’s. Parma hasn’t matched Ural-Great’s success yet on the court, but the club did set an attendance record.
Dance
CSKA’s creative team has also been busy, releasing an amusing video featuring Andrey Vorontsevich, the team’s lovable mascot and the CSKA cheerleaders.
Mascot Challenge
Everyone’s gearing up for the postseason, even the mascots. It started with Nizhny’s Tryulnik, who set the tone at the SIBURCAMP’s basketball camp. Parma’s Manny was the next to show what he can do, then it was Loko mascot Zubastik’s turn as he challenged Zenit’s Lion to step up next. See the hashtag #маскотможет for more.
Record
21 – Enisey center Frank Elegar recorded another double-double against Avtodor, posting 12 points and 11 rebounds, his 21st double-double in the VTB United League. He’s now the all-time League leader, passing ex-Tsmoki center Ivan Maras.
Quote
VTB United League president Sergey Kushchenko:
– It’s always nice to return to Perm, especially when you have such a good excuse: CSKA back in the Molot. The fans were really excited to see CSKA. People have always valued good basketball here and respected opponents. Of course, Parma hasn’t had an easy season, but I don’t think it’s right to judge the team only based on results. Parma has the top attendance in the VTB United League and that’s already a win, in my opinion.
Stars
Nick Minnerath (Avtodor)
Minnerath has been a frequent guest on this list, despite Avtodor’s struggles this season. On Sunday, he scored 37 against Enisey, closing in on the League scoring title.
Frank Elegar (Enisey)
He only took two shots against Avtodor, but finished with an efficiency rating of 31. The All-Star center was everywhere, forcing five fouls and going 8-8 from the line. He also had 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks, not to mention moving into 1st place all-time in double-doubles.
Alexey Shved (Khimki)
Shvewd was not quite as stingy as Elegar, taking 19 shots. He only made five, but Shved is also on the list, adding an 11-14 showing at the free-throw line to go with four rebounds and a seven assists in a big win.
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