The Take
The basketball fate wasn’t merciful to Tsmoki at the beginning of the season. They started the VTB United League championship with two road games against CSKA and Khimki and were seriously hammered.
At home, Minsk managed to defeat Astana and PARMA. However, UNICS prevented them from the third win in a row.
As for away games, Tsmoki beat only Nizhny Novgorod. They played strongly against Avtodor but lost the game in final second.
Nevertheless, the club considers the start of the season to be successful due to a winning series in FIBA Cup. Tsmoki won five games in a row in the championship. In the VTB United League, Minsk takes the seventh place in the standings.
Last week, Lokomotiv Kuban sent five players to the national team. However, it shouldn’t affect the preparation for the game seriously.
Loko averages 88 points (the third place in the League), 70.5 missed points (the second place in the League), and 9.5 steals (the first place in the League). Minsk averages 66.7 points and 85 missed points.
Loko has an 8-game winning series at home. Krasnodar was defeated only once by UNICS Kazan. And now our team takes the third place in the standings of the VTB United League.
Loko hammered PARMA on the road in the previous round.
Christofer Czerapowicz is the main threat for Loko. He is both the top scorer (11.9) and top rebounder (5.3) of the team. Devon Saddler averages 11 points in a game, while David Kravish – 9.9 points. The top assister of Tsmoki is Filip Adamovic (4.5).
As for Loko, Joe Ragland and Chris Babb average 13 points in a game. Frank Elegar averages 12.4 points. The top assisters of the team are Khvostov (3.5), Ragland (3.5), and Collins (3.4). Brian Qvale (4,4), Mardy Collins (4.4), and Frank Elegar (4.2) are top rebounders.
Khvostov averages 1.5 steals in a game, Ryan Broekhoff – 1.3, Dima Kulagin – 1.3, Frank Elegar – 1.2.
Quotes
The game takes place in Krasnodar on December 2nd at 4:00 p.m. Moscow time.