After the defeat in the previous game, there was one change in the Lokomotiv roster – Danil Sheyanov took the place of Aleksandr Gudumak. And there were three changes in the starting five at once – Dmitry Uzinsky, Anton Kvitkovskikh and Tahjere McCall appeared.
This lineup started off quite fast: Kvitkovskikh scored 2 points, then took a rebound on his own post after a miss by Anton Kardanakhishvili – and then things gone bad: Andrei Martyuk was left lying on the parquet after fighting for a rebound in the Uralmash paint. As a result, our center left the parquet on his own, but did not return to the game this evening. What happened to him will be known tomorrow after a medical examination.
When the game resumed, Jeremiah Martin tied the score from the free throw line – but this remained the only points scored by the hosts for quite a long time. Meanwhile, Loko attacked accurately and in a variety of ways: in the first 4 minutes, Kirill Yelatontsev, Uzinsky, McCall and Antonius Cleveland scored – 10:2.
Kardanakhishvili and Javonte Douglas reduced it to one possession, but Cleveland very confidently completed two attacks in a row, 14:7. Lokomotiv passed well – sometimes they managed to score without a single dribble. Towards the end of the quarter, Isaiah Whaley showed himself well, scoring 5 points in 12 seconds: first a 3-pointer, then a dunk after a steal by Kirill Temirov. So the difference in the score became double-digit, 25:14.
In the 2nd quarter, Loko picked up the pace and started scoring points much faster: Cleveland from the perimeter under 45, Patrick Miller in the power breakthrough, McCall from afar, Cleveland 2+1, Yelatontsev after Miller’s pass, Kvitkovskikh from beyond the arc – by the 17th minute the 50 points mark had already been crossed, 51:27.
Only at this point did Uralmash manage to slow down our momentum a little, and nevertheless by the big break – after Yelatontsev’s run into the paint – the score was 59:37. For all Lokomotiv Kuban fans this ten minutes definitely were a balm for the wounds left over from the previous game.
This season, Loko has shown their ability to play stronger in the second half much more than once. This time, exactly the same thing happened. In the 2nd quarter the opponent somehow scored points in response to our attacking hurricane, but now the Krasnodar team completely blocked all approaches to their hoop.
And our team continued to score at the same hurricane pace. John Jenkins and Sheyanov picked up the team rhythm well, aggression in the attack led to Uralmash fouls every now and then, McCall kept scoring from any distance, Kvitkovskikh was unstoppable. Loko won the third quarter 34:7, and the overall score left no doubt about the outcome – 93:44.
In the 4th quarter, Rostislav Vergun took all of his leaders out of the game. And soon the difference in the score exceeded 50 points – after a 3-pointer by Temirov. And the player whose hit broke the 100-point mark was Jenkins – only then did Loko loosen their grip, allowing the opponent to get back in the score a little.
Andrey Vedishchev’s team set two records. 112:68 is the biggest away victory in the playoffs in the history of the VTB United League, as well as the highest-scoring game by a team playing away in a playoff game.
The absolute record for the biggest margin in the playoffs belongs to CSKA, who won the quarterfinal against Astana on May 4, 2015, with the score 110:60. With one point less – 104:55 – Zenit defeated Yenisei on April 23, 2022 (also in the quarterfinals).
Two teams have previously managed to score 112 points in a VTB United League playoff game: both on their home courts (and both times in the quarterfinals). These are CSKA (on May 24, 2018 over VEF, 112:85) and Lokomotiv Kuban (against PARMA on April 24, 2024, 112:85).
And now Loko is once again in a situation where the day after tomorrow they have to play with a previously smashed opponent. Let’s hope that the lessons of the game #2 have been learned firmly, and the match in Yekaterinburg on April 29 (5:30 PM Moscow time) will become the final one in this series.