Lokomotiv Kuban was leading the league before this round. But, as usual, doubts did not leave: was it well deserved? What if we were taking someone else’s place? Well, you yourself know other arguments in such kind of discussion.
It is very good that the time has come to play Avtodor – the opponent that will highlight your strengths and, of course, some things that you may be embarrassed to know.
The very first episode of scoring turned out to be replete with interpretations: the ball after BJ Johnson’s throw wavered and wavered, hit the ring and hit – and finally went in. What is this supposed to mean, what, huh?
However, soon Andrey Martyuk joined in: like, how come it wasn’t me who scored the first ball for Loko? So, Martyuk scored the second one, 4:0.
Patrick Miller, in his signature style, broke through to the opponent’s basket (let us remember that his signature style is that opponents are scattered away like bowling pins). Then Johnson showed twice in a row why he deserves the All-Star Game: he scored with a foul, and then made the best dunk of the season so far. Perhaps our legionnaires did all this to literally heat themselves up. Let us remind you that Avtodor plays on an ice arena – and this time it was too cold, so our team manager had to buy a bag of gloves and hand them out to the players.
Dušan Beslać continued to keep Avtodor at an acceptable gap, but 2+1 from Antonius Cleveland and 3 from Isaiah Whaley gave Loko the opportunity to finish the quarter in their favor: 21:17 – no one said it’s gonna be easy.
The start of the 2nd quarter seemed great for Lokomotiv in general: the club’s alumnus Yegor Sychkov started scoring 3-pointers. The bad news for Loko fans is that he is currently playing on loan at Avtodor, and Saratov team took the lead due to his efforts – 25:26.
But then Lokomotiv’s secret (but for whom is it a secret?) weapon called Karvel Anderson was activated; Miller once again showed his superpowers under the ring; and then the Krasnodar team released its best (this is not our fantasy, this is the League’s stats) 6th player Antonius Cleveland from the bench. All of the aforementioned let Andrey Vedishchev’s team to go into the big break with a double-digit advantage – 42:32.
At that point, the home team remembered that it was them who were the home team. Avtodor started playing what the Lokomotiv coaching staff expected of them (a fast, intricate attack). However, thanks to Martyuk, Johnson, and Whaley’s skill, the gap was even increased! Especially after another three-pointer from Anderson – 65:52 by the end of the 3rd quarter.
Для победы оставалось не упустить накопленное преимущество. Формально «Локо» с этим справился: вот Уэйли ловко закинул ещё 3, вот Миллер выступил в своей лучшей традиции. Но получилось нервно. Джамал Джонс забил три, потом ещё и ещё…
Дотерпели. Но такой непростой победы у «Локо» в этом сезоне пока что не было. Рекорд по выигрышам на старте (4 штуки сходу) – это здорово. Но для пятой победы надо постараться на уровень усерднее – ведь 6 октября предстоит сыграть с «Зенитом», да ещё и на выезде.
To win, Loko had just not to lose this advantage. Formally, the mission was accomplished: Whaley neatly scored another 3;Miller once again showed his best. But the ending turned out to be nervous. Jamal Jones scored three, then another and one more…
Loko endured. But that happened to be the toughest victory so far. The club record for wins at the start (4 right away) is great. But for the fifth victory, the guys need to try much harder – on October 6 they have to play pretty powerful Zenit at their arena.