Krasnoyarsk and St. Petersburg will host regular season games on Sunday.
Enisey (Russia, Krasnoyarsk) vs. MINSK (Belarus, Minsk)
Time: 16:30 (12:30 Moscow time)
Place: Russia, Krasnoyarsk, Arena Sever
Broadcast: Start, League website
Enisey: The season has not started well for the Siberian team. They’ve lost twice, and the offense hasn’t shined so far – 63 points against Samara and 64 against CSKA. Of course, radically renewed Enisey is essentially a newcomer like Runa or Uralmash this season, so it will take some time for the team to find its game. In some places, the Krasnoyarsk team is already showing what the head coach expects from them: for example, the Siberian team won the final quarter of the game against CSKA 27:15, and Jeremiah Martin caused a lot of trouble. Don’t forget that Enisey played both games on the road – Sunday’s game will be their first at home.
MINSK: Despite the very sensitive loss against Pari NN, the team fans still have reasons for optimism. First of all, Grigoriy Motovilov scored 19 points with excellent realisation of shots from the game. Interestingly, Grigoriy will face his former team on Sunday: he played in Enisey last season. By the way, in his debut game for MINSK, Motovilov immediately repeated his League high – in the game against Astana, he scored 19 points. However, Motovilov teammates need to get their sights set, too, especially Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson, who made 4 out of 19 from the game against Nizhny Novgorod.
Zenit (St. Petersburg, Russia) vs. CSKA (Moscow, Russia)
Time: 16:00 (Moscow time)
Place: Russia, St. Petersburg, KSC Arena
Broadcast: Match TV, Start, Mir Basketbola, League website.
Zenit: One of the key games at the start of the season will take place in St. Petersburg. Both Zenit and CSKA are entering the season rather cautiously: the Army team had a some problems beating MBA and Enisey, while Zenit lost to the League newcomer. However, Xavier Pascual team managed to rehabilitate against Samara. Thomas Heurtel should be of the main key factors in the game between the two Russian basketball giants. The French guard hasn’t been consistent so far: in the game against Uralmash, he had 13 assists but failed to shoot well from the game, but against Samara, he almost didn’t miss a shot, but allowed 4 turnovers in 23 minutes.
CSKA: The rivalry history between CSKA and Zenit totals 47 games. CSKA won 32 of them. However, this time the Army Men cannot be considered as favorites, although they are now conditionally above Zenit in the standings. Of course, Emil Rajkovic knows how motivate his players, but the hosts motivation should be overwhelming. First, Zenit will surely want to take revenge for last year’s third-place series loss, and second, Pascual team needs to rehabilitate after the home loss to Uralmash. While Heurtel is still unstable, the entire Moscow team could periodically make mistakes : CSKA barely defended its win against MBA and played a very disappointing final quarter against Enisey – let the Krasnoyarsk team score 27 points.
