The biggest stories from the past seven days in the League.
Synchronized Swimming
Zenit quickly bounced back from the loss to Lokomotiv-Kuban in the Eurocup, crushing UNICS by 25 in the Game of the Week. St. Petersburg has now won 10 in a row in the League, tying a club record. But because CSKA and Khimki also picked up victories, the top three in the standings remains unchanged.
Meanwhile, UNICS’s hopes of a top-four finish are fading fast after the setback to Zenit. UNICS trails Lokomotiv-Kuban by 2.5 games with a little more than a month to go in the regular season.
Return
Former Nizhny Novgorod boss Zoran Lukic is back. He was named Chief of Basketball Operations on March 11.
Lukic coached the team from 2008-14, helping Nizhny Novgorod reach the VTB United League finals in 2013.
“I returned to Nizhny Novgorod to help the team finish strong and reach the VTB United League playoffs. We’ll try to start fresh. Personally, I want to say that I’ve returned home,” Lukic announced.
Shakeup
Lukic’s return, and memories of Nizhny’s magical run in the VTB United League and Euroleague, were a pleasant surprise for fans enduring a rebuilding season. But meeting his goal of qualifying for the 2017 postseason will be a daunting task. After the defeat at home to 8th-place Enisey on Sunday, the Black-Whites are 3.5 games back of 8th place. Even if Nizhny can go 4-0 to close the season, somebody ahead of them will need to start dropping games.
Avtodor, on the other hand, took a step in the right direction on Tuesday. A win in Tallinn pushed Saratov (6-12) ahead of Nizhny (6-14) and into 9th place. Both clubs are chasing the trio of Enisey (9-10), Astana (9-10) and VEF (8-9).
Lift Off
Opportunity
UNICS played twice last week, giving Keith Langford multiple chances to catch CSKA’s Vitaly Fridzon for the all-time League scoring record. After Dirk Nowitzki scored his 30,000th point in the NBA, VTB United League fans had every reason to believe Langford would be able to erase the 16-point deficit and create some history of his own.
Instead, the American guard missed both games with an injury, while Fridzon was able to stretch the lead to 31 after scoring 15 points in a win over VEF.
First Look
Several players made debuts in the League this week. Branko Mirkovic (Kalev), Alex Gordon (VEF), Cameron Gliddon (Avtodor) and Demonte Harper (Zenit) took the court for the first time in new uniforms with Harper and Mirkovic having the biggest impact. Zenit’s new signing put up 11+7+5 in a win over UNICS, while Mirkovic scored 28 points to go with 11 assists in Kalev’s defeat to Avtodor.
Broadcast
Khimki streamed a live broadcast of the game against Parma through its Instagram account. The team posted several highlights on the account, including a tour of the visiting locker room in Perm and this clutch 3-pointer by Viacheslav Zaitcev down the stretch.
Once again, Parma had a chance to secure its first win, but couldn’t quite solve an experienced Khimki squad.
Hope
CSKA center Pavel Korobkov could return this season. That’s good news considering the big man underwent three surgeries on his left knee last year.
“Pasha Korobkov has started running and there’s a chance he could play this season. No one plans to rush his recovery, of course, but the doctors say he’s making progress. Pasha is already running. He’s got some pain, but everything is okay, so there’s hope. If he plays in April, that would be good,” – shared CSKA president Andrey Vatutin.
Stat
30 – VEF became the first team this season to score 30 or more points in a quarter vs. CSKA.
Even in losses to Loko and Zenit, CSKA never gave up 30 points in a period. On Sunday, the Army Men recovered quickly from the atypical 2nd quarter, conceding only 10 points in the 3rd quarter to seize control and close out a road win.
Quote
Kalev head coach Alar Varrak:
– 10 missed layups, some turnovers… You don’t need to do that much in order to lose a game. The beginning of the 1st quarter and end of the 3rd quarter were a catastrophe.
Stars
Sergey Karasev (Zenit)
UNICS specifically broke down Karasev’s game prior to the matchup with Zenit and used various combinations on defense throughout the evening. It didn’t matter. Karasev scored 26 points and got his team to click as Zenit scored 109 points in a convincing win.
Alexey Shved (Khimki)
Shved bounced back quickly from the loss in Valencia, putting up MVP numbers in a narrow win against Parma: 26+8+8.
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