UNICS started the championship with a victory over Lokomotiv-Kuban
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The current champion of the VTB United League UNICS began its performance in the championship of the new season with a victory. Moreover, the Kazan team beat not just anyone, but last year’s finalist, Lokomotiv-Kuban. In fact, Velimir Perasovic’s team made the game already in the first half of the meeting, when they managed to break away by almost two dozen points. As a result, UNICS won a landslide victory with a score of 91:73.
Head coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban Alexander Sekulic, before traveling to Kazan for the match against UNICS, which opened the new championship, had many reasons for optimism. His team really showed itself well in the recent VTB United League Super Cup, which it could easily have won, but still lost to Zenit in the final. UNICS, on the contrary, appeared in some strange state and immediately dropped out of the fight for the main prize. But, obviously, those who believed that Kazan coach Velimir Perasovic was rather experimenting at the Super Cup were right, not striving for victory at any cost. After all, on Saturday the public saw a completely different UNICS.
Of course, from a match with such a bright sign – after all, the two finalists of last season met – the audience expected some kind of intense action. In fact, they had to be content with watching UNICS clear all questions regarding the winner by the big break. It was easy to guess that it would be difficult for the Krasnodar team already in the opening of the match, when Jalen Reynolds and Louis Laberie began to harass the Lokomotiv-Kuban defense, but they did not have a worthy answer. Already at the end of the first quarter, the hosts’ lead, after Kamolov’s long-range hit, reached 11 points. By the end of the second quarter, with Nenad Dimitrievich leading the way (the best player of the match with 22 points), UNICS’ lead approached 20 points.
Yes, Lokomotiv-Kuban has repeatedly shown that it knows how to catch up with an opponent who is far ahead. Something similar to an attempt to do this took place in Kazan, but the Krasnodar team never managed to get closer than 13 points. Surely, if Seulich could count on the services of Devon Akun-Purcell (injured) or Jaylen Burford (not yet arrived at the team’s location), things could have turned out much better. Well, even the final quarter of the meeting turned into a formality. UNICS won with a clear advantage – 91:73. Let us note that now the winning streak of Kazan over Krasnodar, taking into account the playoffs of last season, has already reached five matches.
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