CSKA basketball players beat UNICS in Kazan with a score of 79:66
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In the main match of the game week of the regular championship of the VTB United League, the current champion UNICS hosted the most titled club in the league, CSKA. The Kazan team, in second place, had a chance to close the gap with the army team in first place. But they didn’t use it. Thanks to well-coordinated team play, CSKA won with a score of 79:66, virtually eliminating all questions in the match even before the big break, and strengthened its leadership in the championship.
Kazan and CSKA approached the first head-to-head meeting this season in approximately equal positions. The army team, who had not known defeat for nine rounds (in the current championship this is the best winning streak so far), still stumbled in the round before last, losing to Lokomotiv-Kuban. As for UNICS, its liabilities include two lost matches. However, if CSKA nevertheless lost to the play-off finalist of last season, who, moreover, probably knows how to tune in specifically to games against the army team better than anyone else, then the Kazan team stumbled in games with teams that were obviously inferior to them in class – “Samara” and “ Rune.” The first is in its second season in the league, the second is in its debut.
This gave reason to say that Velimir Perasovic’s team had not yet reached full speed. This means that it was possible to consider her a favorite in the confrontation with CSKA, even despite the fact that the match took place in Kazan and the stands of the Basket Hall were filled, only with reservations. The key was that UNICS depends much more than CSKA on how the game goes for its leaders. If Nenad Dimitrievich, Jalen Reynolds, Dmitry Kulagin, Eric Green are at their best, then stopping UNICS can be terribly difficult. And if they don’t catch, then misfires like in the matches with “Samara” and “Runa” happen. CSKA, on the other hand, this season is a much more collectivist team. The transition to such a scheme is a forced measure, due to the fact that the army team parted ways with Nikola Milutinov and Alexey Shved in the off-season. But Emil Raikovich managed to build a very harmonious team, insensitive to individual losses.
At first, however, it seemed that in the Kazan match individualism would prevail over collectivism. A very beautiful and difficult three-pointer flew into the hoop after Kulagin’s throw, Dimitrievich gracefully made his trademark parachutes a couple of times, and Reynolds hammered the ball in with extreme effect. CSKA had noticeably fewer such bright moments. Either Raikovich deliberately set the team up for a solid start, or the CSKA players themselves had been eyeing the opponent’s weaknesses for some time. So the first quarter was an even fight. But the second question of who is better prepared at the moment has actually been removed. The guests’ weapon of victory was to bet on the big ones. Tony Jekiri, Livio Jean-Charles, Amat Mbaye surprisingly easily penetrated the opponent’s ring and scored points, often encountering almost no resistance. These three accounted for almost half (39) of the points scored by CSKA. It’s scary to imagine what would have happened to UNICS if Casper Ware had also played at his strength (the army team’s leader played a very poor match).
No matter how hard Perasovich tried to rebuild the team’s game, he was unable to neutralize the heavy army weapons. Just as the attempts of the host players to compensate for failures under the shields with long-range throws did not bring success. UNICS’s percentage of hits was normal, about 35%, but in no way leveled out the disorder in the paint. As a result, CSKA went into the long break with an 11-point advantage. Formally, this is not so much two quarters before the siren. In reality, the factors that would allow UNICS to win back were not visible both before and after the break. Except that Dimitrievich kept trying to save his team alone (and he can do that), but it wasn’t his day. CSKA calmly brought the match to victory with a score of 79:66 and strengthened its leadership.
VTB United League Championship
MBA—Uralmash 87:90. “Zenit” — “Nizhny Novgorod” 68:65. “Yenisei” — “Astana” 96:92. “Samara” – “Parma” 85:83. “Minsk” – “Avtodor” 76:91. “Lokomotiv-Kuban” — “Runa” 96:76. UNICS—CSKA 66:79.
Tournament table
I V P % points
1. CSKA 12 11 1 92
2. UNICS 11 8 3 73
3. Zenit 12 8 4 67
4. “Yenisei” 12 8 4 67
5. Lokomotiv-Kuban 12 7 5 58
6. “Samara” 12 7 5 58
7. “Rune” 11 6 5 55
8. Uralmash 12 6 6 50
9. “Astana” 11 5 6 45
10. MBA 12 5 7 42
11. Parma 12 4 8 33
12. Avtodor 12 4 8 33
13. “Nizhny Novgorod” 11 3 8 27
14. “Minsk” 12 0 12 0
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