One step to the first – Newspaper Kommersant No. 37 (7482) dated 03/03/2023
[ad_1]
In the central match of the week, CSKA hosted UNICS. The army team got even with Kazan for the recent defeat, winning with a score of 91:77, and practically guaranteed themselves first place in the regular season.
CSKA and UNICS last met quite recently. In mid-February, in Kazan, Velimir Perasovich’s wards defeated CSKA with a score of 112:104. For Muscovites, this loss was, in a sense, historical – he had never missed so many matches in the United League. For UNICS, the victory, in addition to the emotional aspect (it’s always nice to beat the leader), also had a practical meaning. She allowed Kazan to challenge CSKA’s claims to win the regular season.
However, UNICS in the very first match after the pause, arranged for the “Star Game” of the league, leveled the effect of the victory over the army team. Kazan lost to Zenit, which means that in order to win in the regular season, they already had to not only win all the remaining matches (CSKA had to beat with a difference of at least eight points), but also count on the fact that Emil Raikovich’s team would stumble somewhere more. Difficult, but still not impossible. But first it was necessary to defeat CSKA. And the moment seemed to be right. The army team injured Alexei Shved. Nikola Milutinov had just recovered from the injury (he got into the application for the match, but Raikovich never released him to the site). But even without such important players, CSKA looked better than the opponent. Still, Raikovich, as noted by Ilona Korstin, General Director of the VTB United League, managed to build an excellent team. “Before the season, we watched the selection of CSKA and did not see star newcomers. Many thought that after the defeat last season, it would be difficult for the army team to return to the first place, – Ilona Korstin told the press service of the league. – But the club’s management made an excellent choice. CSKA has become a truly coaching team.”
By the end of the first quarter, the lead of the parquet owners reached 12 points. A bunch of problems for Kazan brought long-range shots of CSKA players. Samson Ruzhentsev began to hit from a distance, Dallas Moore had some very difficult attempts. Plus, Livio Jean-Charles felt too comfortable under both shields. The guests tried to respond, but there were big problems with the implementation. Not surprising, given that the entire load fell on the starting five of UNICS. In the first half of the match, Kazan scored 39 points (CSKA – 53), of which only four points were brought by the bench player – Vince Hunter. Perhaps such a regime would not interfere with UNICS, but among other things, Jalen Reynolds fell into hibernation.
Velimir Perasovich took time-outs, tried to cheer up the team, but the Kazan coach managed to more or less improve the game only after a long break. At the moment, UNICS, who caught the courage Deryl Maicon (with 21 points in the asset, he became the most productive player of the meeting), was approaching the opponent by five points. But it was not possible to take one or two more steps that could really take the match to the end. Well, CSKA, having endured a surge in the opponent’s activity, again ran to a safe distance and brought the match to victory – 91:77. Thus, the army team practically secured first place in the regular season. They only need to win one of their four remaining matches to guarantee it.
VTB United League Championship. Second phase
Group A Zenit – Paris Nizhny Novgorod 83:67. CSKA-UNICS 91:77.
Leaderboard
Group A
I V P % of wins
1. CSKA 28 26 2 93
2. UNICS 28 23 5 82
3. Zenit 28 20 8 71
4. Paris Nizhny Novgorod 27 15 12 56
5. Lokomotiv Kuban 27 15 12 56
6. MBA 26 13 13 50
Group B
1. Avtodor 26 11 15 42
2. Parma-Pari 26 11 15 42
3. Samara 27 11 16 41
4. Enisey 27 10 17 37
5. Astana 25 5 20 20
6. Minsk 27 1 26 4
Points scored by teams in the first stage are taken into account. According to the results of the second stage, all six teams of group A and the two best teams of group B advance to the 1/4 finals.
[ad_2]
Source link