On Sunday, 2 regular season games will be in St. Petersburg and Kazan.
Sunday, March 6
Location: Russia, Kazan, Basket Hall
Broadcast: Match! Strana, League website
Rivalry history: 17 games, UNICS – 15 wins, Tsmoki-Minsk – 2 wins
UNICS: The Kazan team regained the 1st place in the standings at the beginning of 2022 and have not given it away since, having won 5 games in a row. UNICS has the longest winning streak in the League at the moment and is going to extend it on Sunday against Tsmoki. Stats are completely for UNICS: the Kazan team score almost 14 points more (84.9 vs. 71.1) and let opponents score less (75.2 vs. 86.1). In addition, UNICS is the only VTB League team that has never lost at home this season.
Tsmoki-Minsk: The Minsk team are not the favorites of this game, but they are no going to just come and lose. Tsmoki have already shown character this season: in the February game with Enisey, they made the biggest comeback in the League history, came back by 27 points. And even without 3 legionnaires who left the team, the Minsk team can surprise. The main Tsmoki strength is teamwork, because the Dragons are make of the most Belarusian national team players.
Location: Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sibur Arena
Broadcast: TV Start, League website
Rivarly history: 13 games, Zenit – 10 wins, PARMA-PARIMATCH – 3 wins
Zenit: This season the teams met in Perm, and Zenit was defeated (67:77). Since then, the lineups have changed seriously – all foreign players have decided to leave both the Perm and St. Petersburg teams. Zenit reacted quickly to this: free agents Sergey Monya, Egor Vialtsev and Vitaly Fridzon arrived in Zenit, and guard Andrey Toptunov returned from Novosibirsk. Also, forward Aaron Carver moved to Zenit from Novosibirsk. Zenit is preparing to take revenge on PARMA-PARIMATCH, which will allow the team to push CSKA from the 2nd place in the standings.
PARMA-PARIMATCH: Postponements of games due to COVID led to the game in St. Petersburg on Sunday will be the first for the Perm team in 2 months and only the second in 2022. By the way, the first and so far the only game in the League this year, PARMA played just against Zenit at home on January 4. PARMA won (77:67), but there is no point in analyzing that game, because all the legionnaires left the team during the week. But, unlike Zenit, the Perm team have not yet announced the newcomers and in the game in St. Petersburg they will be able to strengthen except by representatives of the youth team. In this situation, Valery Likhodei can take on the role of leader: the experienced forward, who moved to PARMA-PARIMATCH during the season, spent his only League game for the new team against Zenit.
