How does the season for Zenit go?
The 11th season in the VTB United league goes good: in the quarterfinals, they eliminated PARMA (102:68, 92:79, 91:74) pretty easily, which allowed them to prolong their winning streak to 23 games. The last team to defeat Javier Pascual’s team was Lokomotiv Kuban. It happened on January 11 in St. Petersburg; the game ended 117:98 in our favor – Zenit has never conceded so many points in its history, and we have never scored so many in the away game.
It’s interesting, that all 4 games between our teams in the regular season ended with victories for the guests. On October 6, Lokomotiv spoiled Zenit’s 10-year anniversary of their debut in the VTB United League (83:76), on November 3 it was their turn to win in Krasnodar (71:77), then there was the aforementioned game with a three-digit score, and on March 9, the St. Petersburg team took victory from Basket Hall again (89:92).
As for entire history between us, there is complete equality in victories – 20-20 (in terms of points difference, we are slightly ahead, 3264:3212).
In the playoffs of the VTB United League, we met twice. In the 2018/19 season, Lokomotiv lost the 1/4 final series with a score of 1-3. And last season – also with a score of 1-3 – we lost the series for the bronze medals.
Yet, in the 1/4 finals of the 2016/17 Eurocup we knocked out Zenit, winning both at home (75:52) and away (88:77).
We also faced Zenit in the VTB United League Super Cup twice: in 2023, we lost in a dramatic final game 83:85, and a year earlier in the group stage, we won 74:73, defeating the newly-crowned champion thanks to a buzzer by Jaylen Barford.
Zenit's leaders
At the quarterfinal stage, Zenit started all three matches with the same five: Trent Frazier – Sergey Karasev – Dwayne Bacon – Vince Hunter – Andrey Vorontsevich.
Bacon has been the best player on this team (and perhaps in the entire league) in this playoffs so far: the forward has not scored less than 20 points in any game (22.7 on average). He also made 3.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.3 steals in the quarterfinal series.
Hunter is also very good: he is currently leading the entire playoffs in rebounds (8.3) and blocks (2.0). The center’s 11.7 points and 1.0 steals make his profile even more impressive.
Frazier is a point guard who runs fast, has lightning-quick hands, and is always willing to crank up the tempo. He’s averaging 12 points, 3.7 assists, and 2 steals this playoffs.
Vorontsevich is the record holder in the VTB United League in terms of medals, but he is not going to rest on his laurels. In the quarterfinals against PARMA, he scored 3-pointers with 50% accuracy (an average 2 out of 4 attempts per game) – this allowed the power forward to perform 8.7 points.
Karasev’s stats in these playoffs may not look as strong (5.7 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 2.0 steals – tied for first on the team with Frazier in steals), but it’s hard to overstate the small forward’s dirty work: he’s always ready to score if left unguarded, and on defense he’s been working… see his steal numbers just above.
Zenit’s main joker is another legend of Russian basketball, Alexey Shved. Coming off the bench, the shooting guard spends just over 20 minutes per game in the playoffs and, as expected, leads his team in assists – 6.3. He is 4th in Zenit in shooting attempts, scoring 7.7 per game. Also, it is quite unexpected to see Shved 2nd in his team in blocks (0.7).
On can argue that the main 6th man in Zenit is Georgy Zhbanov: 21.5 minutes in the playoffs, 9.0, 50% accuracy of long-range shots.
Our opponent’s substitute center is Alex Poythress. He plays 17 minutes in playoff games, scoring 11 points, making 3.7 rebounds and 1.0 steals.
A very important player for Zenit in the posts is Okaro White who recently played 1.5 seasons for Loko. In this playoff he doesn’t score much (2.3 points), but in terms of rebounds he is second on his team (4.0). It is also worth noting his 1.7 assists.
Three more players had some minutes for Zenit in the first round of the playoffs: Denis Zakharov (9 minutes, 2 points and 1 rebound on average), point guard Alexander Shcherbenev (3 minutes, 2.5 points, 1 assist) and center Yegor Ryzhov (3 minutes, 1 point, 0.5 rebounds).
What about Loko?
The quarterfinal series against Uralmash gave Loko some lessons. A confident victory in the first game (97:65) was followed by a bitter defeat (66:75). Having received such a slap in the face, our guys got going properly and crushed the opponent (112:68), but then it was Uralmash’s turn to strike back; however, Loko was able to take the hard victory and not to bring things to game #5 (82:77).
In search of the best starting five, our coaches used 10 different players in the starting lineup during the playoffseries. Patrick Miller remained the only constant choice (perhaps Andrei Martyuk could have joined him if there was no micro injury in game #3).
Here are the leaders of Lokomotiv in the current playoffs according to key statistical indicators:
POINTS
Antonius Cleveland 16.5
Patrick Miller 14.5
Tahjere McCall 10.3
REBOUNDS
Antonius Cleveland 5.5
Kirill Yelatontsev 5.3
Isiah Whaley 4.3
ASSISTS
Patrick Miller 4.8
Vladislav Yemchenko 3.8
Tahjere McCall 3.8
STEALS
Kirill Temirov 1.5
Vladislav Yemchenko 1.5
Tahjere McCall 1.5
BLOCKS
Kirill Yelatontsev 0.8
Isiah Whaley 0.8
Antonius Cleveland 0.5
What are the odds?
It is hard to deny that Zenit has a good momentum now. But when Loko plays, the underdog always has better chances. After we knocked out Uralmash, there is no one left in the playoffs against whom we would be considered a favorite – in such a situation, as practice shows, we feel more confident.
The semi-final series goes up to 4 wins of one of the teams. We are playing the first two games in St. Petersburg: May 5 at 7:30 PM (broadcasted live by Krasnodar, Match! Igra and Start TV channels), May 7 at 8 PM (Krasnodar, Match TV and Start).
Then we play in Krasnodar on May 11 at 2 PM and May 13 at 8 PM. Subsequent games, if necessary, will take place on May 16, 19 and 22 – we will tell you about them separately.
Go, Loko! The battle for the final begins!
