Zenit make a break, Zielona Gora beat CSKA in historic game and celebrate it with fireworks. Week in review

Zenit make a break, Zielona Gora beat CSKA in historic game and celebrate it with fireworks. Week in review

 All about latest week in the United League!

Kris Richard brings Zielona Gora historic victory over CSKA

CSKA came to Poland after a double week in Euroleague with cut roster: Nikola Milutinov is out of the rest of the season, Will Clyburn didn’t play.

Even though CSKA were front-runners, what they started to prove from the first minutes: they made a 17-2 run and had some highlight plays.

Anyway, Zielona Gora are considered one of the most interesting teams of the season. The Poles came back from -15 twice and were 10 points ahead with 5 minutes left in regulation.

CSKA managed to even the score and could win the game. However, Kris Richard though differently: Zielona Gora guard, who scored 14 points in the first quarter, stole the ball from Daniel Hackett ran in the corner and made one of the best season highlight plays:

This victory is the first over CSKA in Zielona Gora history. The main heroes in Poland were guards Iffe Lundberg and Kris Richard who scored 51 points combined:

To understand the importance of the victory for Zielona Gora just look at players emotions and the way the fans congratulated the team:

How Zielona Gora celebrate their most important franchise victory

Zenit outclass Loko and make a break

In the game of the week in Saint Petersburg it was hot too. Zenit that lost twice this week in Euroleague wanted to recover, thus they started the game against Loko with 7 threes and 35 points in the first quarter:

In the first half Loko were behind by 20 points but by the half time they improved their defense and cut the gap to 6 points.

Jordan Crawford was breaking opponents’ defense times and times again, Drew Gordon scored 15 points in his debut game for Loko. However, Zenit saved the lead via Will Thomas performance. The Center of Saint Petersburg spent one of the best games in his 13-years career collecting double-double with 30 points and 11 rebounds.

Thanks to CSKA loss in Poland, Zenit settled on the first spot and now have 2 wins more than CSKA.

Khimki win for the first time under Andrey Maltsev coaching

In the beginning of January the team announced coaching staff changes: Rimas Kurtinaitis was dismissed and Andrey Maltsev became acting head coach.

On Monday Khimki won for the first time under Russian specialist coaching. Win over PARMA was tough as Khimki came to Perm without leaders: Alexey Shved, Janis Timma, Devin Booker and Stefan Jovic missed the game.

And PARMA were close to their first success in history over Khimki: in the ending Perm attempted 2 game-winners but After Adas Juskevicius and Boris Savovic threes the ball didn’t go in. Marcel Ponitka debut didn’t save PARMA as well: Zielona Gora ex-guard debuted with 12 points and 3/3 threes.

Thanks to this win Khimki keep 8th place while PARMA complicated the situation in standings.

Avtodor make a 17-point comeback in Kazakhstan

And the comeback of the week goes to Avtodor. Gordie Herbert team were behind by 17 points on the road and Astana showed good defense in the first half:

However, during the half time break Avtodor managed to reload and came in the second half with the will to recover. They succeeded: Saratov evened the score and then gained double-digit lead and celebrated the win, 7th in the season.

Guests most efficient player was Zeljko Sakic with double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds. Russian duo that started Avtodor comeback also to be noted: Nikita Mikhailovskii and Evgeniy Minchenko scored 36 points combined!

UNICS finish a perfect Janury in Minsk, Jamar Smith name month MVP

In January Kazan had probably one of the toughest schedules. Since January 3 to 30 UNICS spent 9 games, 6 in the United League and 3 in EuroCup and won all of them! Kazan finished a perfect month in Minsk beating Tsmoki.

The victory was signature, with great defense. UNICS let Minsk score only 66 points frocing 19 turnovers.

In a few days The League announced January MVP, it went to Jamar Smith, UNICS captain. The guard became the most efficient on Kazan roster and was averaging 16.2 points per game.

Enisey take second consecutive victory for the first time since 2019.

It seems like Krasnoyarsk overcame pandemic bad streak. Enisey won their second game in a row for the first time in a year. This time Drazen Anzulovich team beat Kalev on the road.

Good news for Enisey fans is that the team showed best offense of the season scoring 86 points in Tallinn. Anzulovich noted that Krasnoyarsk are in good shape and ready to win more.

Dustin Hogue was the best player in the game. Enisey center didn’t know how to miss, hit 10 from 10 and left the floor with 23 points and 8 rebounds.


Zielona Gora win in Tallinn even without coach presence

Compared to historic game against CSKA tough away victory over Kalev took a back seat. The game was hard: few moments before the start of the game the Polish team announced that Zan Tabak left the team temporarily as his mother passed away. Due to this, the game started with a moment of silence.

The game was remarkable via duel between two top-scorers Marcus Keene and Gabriel Lundberg who are both top-5 League’s best scorers. Both players scored 16 points each by the half-time:

Keene won the duel scoring 3 points more than Lundberg, 24 vs 21. However, Kalev failed in the fourth quarter scoring only 7 points in 10 minutes.

“We want to devote this victory to Zan Tabak and his mother. He is important for us, he is our coach and our leader”, Tabak’s assistant Felix Alonso said after the game.

Trades

Last week there were a few trades. The loudest was Drew Gordon’s trade from Avtodor to Loko, the center has already debuted for his new team in Saint Petersburg scoring 15 points and 2 rebounds.

Avtodor replaced Gordon with Dusan Ristic. Last season the Serbian was Astana player and was League’s top rebounder (10,9) and second most efficient player (22,3) and also top-10 in scoring (15,7 points).

Besides, Avtodor signed Cheick Diallo, Mali forward who played for Phoenix in 2019/20 season. Overall, Diallo spent 140 game in NBA for Suns, Clippers and Pelicans.

After Robert Johnson left PARMA they needed a guard, thus Marcel Ponitka came form Zielona Gora to Perm. He has already played for PARMA against Khimki and hit 3 of 3 threes with 12 points in the game.

All-Star Game rosters

On Monday the media voting ended, final rosters on All-Star Game in Moscow are announced.

Next day, the League announced wild card players, these are Vitlay Fridzon (Zenit), Semen Antonov (CSKA), Jamar Smith (UNICS) and Marcus Keene (Kalev).

All-Star Game final rosters:

Russian Stars: Alexey Shved (Khimki), Nikita Mikhailovskii (Avtodor), Mikhail Kulagin (Enisey), Viacheslav Zaitcev (Khimki), Evgenii Baburin (Nizhny Novgorod), Vitaly Fridzon (Zenit), Anton Astapkovich (Nizhny Novgorod), Nikita Kurbanov, Joel Bolomboy (both – CSKA), Andrei Zubkov (Zenit), Stanislav Ilnitskiy (Lokomotiv-Kuban), Semen Antonov (CSKA).

World Stars: Mike James (CSKA), Isaiah Canaan (UNICS), Adas Juskevicius (PARMA), Kevin Pangos (Zenit), Mantas Kalnietis (Lokomotiv-Kuban), Jamar Smith (UNICS), Marcus Keene (Kalev), Mindaugas Kuzminskas (Lokomotiv-Kuban), Jordan Mickey (Khimki), Drew Gordon (Avtodor/Lokomotiv-Kuban), Mateusz Ponitka (Zenit), Tornike Shengelia (CSKA).

Team of the week

Standings