The top moments from the past week of competition.
Sensation
The start of the season is always fertile ground for upsets. Khimki stumbled at home to VEF, and Lokomotiv was next. Enisey was coming off a 44-point defeat to UNICS, but bounced back quickly, defeating the Railwaymen in Krasnodar thanks to stingy defense and clutch plays down the stretch.
Surprise
Perhaps not a huge upset, but Avtodor’s loss to Tsmoki-Minsk did come as a surprise. After beating Nizhny Novgorod under new head coach Sergei Mokin, Saratov lost at its own game, getting outscored 89-83 in Belarus.
New Digs
Zenit played its first-ever VTB United League game on the Yubileyny court. Spartak St. Petersburg used to play VTB United League games in the historic arena, site of the 2016 Hockey World Championships and singer Igor Talkov’s murder in 1991.
Zenit’s debut at the arena was a big success. Located in the center of the city, the team drew a big crowd to the newly-renovated venue, and sent the fans home happy with a win over Kalev.
Play of the Week
Vladislav Trushkin came up with two huge plays on defense in the final seconds of Enisey’s win over Lokomotiv. First, he forced Taylor Rochestie into a contested jumper. On the final possession, he left no doubt, blocking Ryan Broekhoff’s potential game-winner to seal the victory.
Party
Homecoming
Igor Kanygin’s return to his native Krasnodar was a success. The Enisey center only played seven minutes, but gave everything he had. Krasnoyarsk ended up winning by two points. This dunk from Kanygin may have been the difference.
Redemption
UNICS opened League competition with three blowout wins, but dropped a heartbreaker to Barcelona in its first Euroleague game. In control for much of the game, Kazan gave up an 18-3 run in the final minutes to lose at home.
The team bounced back quickly. Playing Parma only three days later, UNICS showed little hangover, cruising to an 89-73 victory.
Perspective
Loko did get some good news, despite the Enisey upset. Here’s what president Andrey Vedishchev had to say about the club’s new youth project:
“We really want to help basketball grow and develop our own talent pool and base. Our future center for preparing young athletes is the starting point for the process of resurrecting Russian basketball… In 3-4 years, when we get our basketball academy, I hope that boys from area schools will be able to join and begin practicing at a professional level.
The academy will include a practice center with 650-700 spots, including dormitories, rehab center, and four gyms. It will take about two years to build… We hope to start construction in 2017. It will require significant investment, but the return will be huge.”
Dunk
Stat
66 – number of points scored by Kazan’s Big 3 of Keith Langford (23), Coty Clarke (22), and Artsiom Parakhouski (21) against Parma.
Quote
Lokomotiv-Kuban head coach Fotios Katsikaris:
– This is the worst possible way to start the season, losing to a team that we should have beat. Yes, we need time in order to get comfortable with each other, but we also need wins. I knew that we wouldn’t be 100% ready, and, of course, there are a lot of things for us to work on. But the most important thing is playing our best on defense and being confident on offense. We started today by literally playing ping-pong, scoring one point at a time, which is not what we wanted. The mental aspect is important for us. During the game, there were moments when we could have run away with the score and finished things, but, unfortunately, we didn’t do that.
Stars
Vladislav Trushkin/Frank Elegar (Enisey).
Oleg Okulov guessed right when we put both of these two forwards on the court in the final minutes vs. Loko. Trushkin had two terrific defensive stops, winning the game for Enisey without taking a shot. Meanwhile, Elegar’s 18+12 double-double and 73% shooting from the field were what made Trushkin’s heroics, and the upset, even possible.
Pavel Sergeev (Zenit).
NBA veteran Paul Pierce would have been impressed with Pavel Sergeev’s game against Kalev. The guard may not be oozing athleticism, but he’s got a killer instinct. Zenit didn’t pull away from Kalev until late in the 3rd quarter, before Sergeev slammed the door shut with eight points in the blink of an eye–two 3-pointers and a mid-range jumper–early in the 4th.
Laimonas Kisielius (Tsmoki-Minsk).
The Belarusians used a team effort to slow down Avtodor, but Kisielius had the biggest impact. He shot 50% from the field in 30 minutes, finishing with a team-high 22 points.
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