Victory over CSKA brought UNICS leadership in the championship
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In the match of the second stage of the VTB United League championship, UNICS beat the two giants who shared the lead in the tournament away – 84:78 – CSKA, despite the fact that they were behind in the score for a long time and suffered personnel losses.
It is not at all difficult to imagine how much pressure the CSKA basketball players and their coach Emil Raikovich felt before this match. The meeting was already high-profile – against an opponent who couldn’t be more principled, last year’s champion. The meeting may be key in the just-started second stage from the point of view of determining its winner, the holder of the highest seed in the playoffs, who is especially valued in basketball: it would not be surprising if, when the round ends, it turns out that he is I decided everything. But the background is important. CSKA and UNICS were on a par with each other due to the fact that the army team suffered three defeats in a row – from the same Kazan team at the previous stage, Parma and Zenit. A long series by their standards, the recent basketball hegemon, that threatened to turn into an era of unprecedented length in the United League. A series that is probably angry, infuriating, demanding immediate and as convincing revenge as possible.
But things were difficult with him. The huge “Megasport” immediately burst into applause, watching as Livio Jean-Charles delivered a gorgeous, even slightly humiliating for his opponent, block shot to Ismael Bako – from behind, almost flattening him and the ball against the backboard. But soon reasons to clap and shout appeared mainly among those who liked UNICS better. And the point is not even that Nenad Dimitrievich played out: his hits were something quite routine, or something. I wasn’t drawn to the routine, for example, the density of UNICS’ defensive play. All the army players were confused and sour in his nets, including the newly acquired Olivier Hanlon, who quickly became convinced that in the Italian championship, where he came from, there was no more rigidity than in the VTB United League.
CSKA’s recovery from this mini-crisis was spectacular. Losing seven points after the opening quarter, in the second he somehow very systematically, without rushing anywhere, looked for the right schemes and solutions. And then suddenly I found it. And after three-pointers from Melo Trimble and Hanlon, UNICS coach Velimir Perasovich, sensing something bad, took a time out. And almost immediately I had to ask for another one, because things were getting worse and worse for the Kazan team. They tried, only now the reliable defense was falling to pieces, carried away by the tutelage of Jean-Charles, leaving Anton Astapkovich alone on the arc. And Jalen Reynolds, trying to get to the basket, kept bumping into opponents and saying goodbye to the ball, himself, it seems, not understanding how he fell into a trap, if a second ago there was no trap on the way. In general, CSKA took the lead and, most importantly, clearly received a dose of inspiration that allowed them to forget about the pressure.
Now it’s UNICS’s turn to find itself. In these searches, the Kazan people suffered and suffered terrible losses, probably screaming to themselves: “Well, why do we have to do this?!” During the third ten minutes, Ismael Bako and Eric Green left the site limping. It was especially a pity for the latter – after all, he managed to find the throw and became insanely dangerous… But the suffering brought results – and the army team began to fake it. And their lead, which was not catastrophic anyway, shrank to two points.
And then there was the final quarter, in the middle of which everyone who recently thought that CSKA had already taken control of the game looked in surprise at the scoreboard, making sure that UNICS, already tormented by injuries, was leading. And he doesn’t behave in a modest way.
The army team had to urgently come up with something to avoid collapse. But how can you come up with it when Dimitrievich is so hot, reaching, without outwardly straining, the 30-point mark and not intending to slow down there, and when his partners are so focused? Melo Trimble, however, accomplished a couple of feats, but they were too few to be saved. So CSKA was forced to extend its sad streak, losing leadership in the elite group to UNICS.
VTB United League Championship. Second phase
“Yenisey” — “Lokomotiv-Kuban” 87:101. CSKA—UNICS 78:84.
Tournament table
I V P % points
Group A
1. UNICS 29 23 6 79
2. CSKA 29 22 7 76
3. Lokomotiv-Kuban 29 20 9 69
4. Zenit 29 19 9 68
5. Parma 28 17 11 61
6. “Yenisei” 29 16 13 55
Group B
1. Uralmash 30 17 13 57
2. “Samara” 29 16 13 55
3. Avtodor 29 13 16 45
4. “Rune” 29 12 17 41
5. “Astana” 28 10 18 36
6. MBA 29 9 20 31
7. “Nizhny Novgorod” 29 8 21 28
8. “Minsk” 29 0 29 0
Group A is played by the teams that took the first six places at the end of the first stage, in Group B – those that took places from 7th to 14th. The points scored in the first stage are taken into account.
Group A teams guaranteed themselves participation in the playoffs. The four best teams in Group B based on the results of the second stage will play in the play-in stage for the two remaining places in the play-offs. The quarterfinal series will go up to three victories, and the semifinals and finals will go up to four.
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