In the central match of the week of the regular season of the VTB United League, CSKA hosted Lokomotiv-Kuban. After a not very successful start to the match, the army team managed to regroup and win with a score of 86:73, once again equalizing in points with UNICS, who are leading the league. Krasnodar remained in fourth place.
The regular season of the VTB United League, which has only a couple of weeks left, is increasingly reminiscent of a race in which there are two obvious and two shadow leaders. The first category includes UNICS and CSKA, while Zenit and Lokomotiv-Kuban belong to the second category. The gap between the categories is so insignificant, and the level of play demonstrated by them is so close, that predicting the winner of the race for the champion of the regular season is extremely difficult, if possible at all.
Back in early March, after Kazan climbed to first place, bypassing CSKA on additional indicators, it seemed that these two giants would easily play for first place. A little later, after UNICS took a clear lead, it seemed that Velimir Perasovic’s team would not relinquish the lead, given the stability of Kazan. However, both UNICS and CSKA started to make mistakes (both teams lost three times in their last five matches), which only added intensity to the fight for the top spot. As a result, after UNICS lost to Parma again on Saturday (Parma beat the reigning champion for the third time this season, a feat no one else has achieved in the current championship), it became clear that CSKA had a chance to catch up with Kazan once again in the battle against Lokomotiv-Kuban. As for Krasnodar, a victory in Moscow would bring them back into the top 3 and just one win away from second place.
Contrary to tradition, the railwaymen did not start the match slowly, which often forces them to chase the opponent later. Alexander Sekulic’s team started with several successful attacks from Devon Akun-Purcell, later joined by Andrey Martiuk, and even Jaylen Barford, who usually wakes up closer to the end of the game, suddenly showed an unusually energetic period. But the most important thing that Lokomotiv-Kuban did probably wasn’t in the attacks but in the battle for the ball. Under their own basket, the railwaymen grabbed twelve rebounds in the first half of the match. Under the army’s basket, there were nine more. For comparison: CSKA only had nine rebounds in the first two quarters, with only three of them on offense. Such a significant advantage in second chances could not go unnoticed in the course of the match. Plus, the guests “surrounded” Melo Trimble, who, in the absence of Casper Ware (the leader of the army team will return to action after an injury in at least three weeks), takes on the role of the team’s brain. The “surrounding” turned out to be effective, as Trimble was almost not allowed to score and his effective passes were heavily disrupted. As a result, the guests went into the halftime break with an eight-point lead.
It was obvious that a much angrier and more focused CSKA would come out for the second half of the match. And it did. It took less than three minutes after the game resumed for the hosts’ deficit to almost disappear. This was largely because the railwaymen could no longer contain Trimble as effectively as before. And Olivier Hanlan found his rhythm as well. In general, coach Emil Rajkovic of CSKA deserves credit for the work done during the break. His team won the third quarter with a significant advantage – 32:16! As a result, the hosts turned the “minus eight” into “plus eight,” and Alexander Sekulich had to come up with a way to turn the game around. However, he did not have any suitable ideas. In the final quarter, the army team only increased their advantage. After yet another successful attack by Trimble brought them close to a 20-point lead, it became clear that the Krasnodar team could not save the game.
CSKA won with a score of 86:73 (for Rajkovic, this was his 100th victory in the VTB United League) and once again equaled UNICS in points, only trailing in additional indicators. Lokomotiv-Kuban remained in fourth place, one win behind Zenit.
VTB United League Championship. Second Stage
CSKA—Lokomotiv-Kuban 86:73.
Standings
W L Pct Points
Group A
1. UNICS 34 25 9 74
2. CSKA 34 25 9 74
3. Zenit 33 23 10 70
4. Lokomotiv-Kuban 33 22 11 67
5. Parma 33 19 14 58
6. Enisey 33 17 16 52
Group B
1. Uralmash 36 22 14 61
2. Samara 36 20 16 56
3. Avtodor 36 17 19 47
4. MBA 36 15 21 42
5. Runa 36 14 22 39
6. Nizhny Novgorod 36 12 24 33
7. Astana 36 12 24 33
8. Minsk 36 1 35 3
Teams in Group A have secured their place in the playoffs. The top four teams from Group B after the second stage will play in the play-in stage for the last two spots in the playoffs. Quarterfinal series will be played to three wins, while the semifinals and finals will be played to four wins.