Let us remind you, that Jeremiah Martin and Kirill Yelatontsev are currently unavailable for Lokomotiv, and the club’s medical stuff doesn’t give any firm estimates for their return.
Avtodor has to play without their shooting guard Malik Newman (the VTB United League’s top scorer for the 2022/23 season; he played for the Saratov club back then) and Qatar national team center Alen Hadzibegovic.
After the start of the season, Saratov signed point guard Alex Hamilton, who played 2 games for them (averaging 9.0 points, 2.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 1.0 steals). But the player missed the previous game, against UNICS, and it’s unclear whether he will play against Lokomotiv.
So, Avtodor has to deal with a very short rotation at the start of the season: only 11 players have appeared on the court so far, 7 of whom are averaging 16 minutes or more per game (even 6, excluding Hamilton).
Our opponent’s clear leader at the moment is shooting guard Terrence Edwards. Avtodor is well known for regularly bringing new talents to the VTB United League. Edwards seems to be another one. His first college was James Madison (Virginia), where he was named the 2024 NCAA Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year. For his senior year, he transferred to the more prestigious (by basketball standards) Louisville College (Kentucky), where he was named All-Atlantic Coast Conference Third Team.
Right now, the 23-year-old American shows the best statistics of his career: 18.0 points (3rd in the league), 6.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.0 steals, 0.3 blocks.
Dušan Beslać is also among the league leaders, being first by a wide margin in blocks (1.8). The Serbian power forward is in his third season with Avtodor, and currently (excluding steals, which are 0.2) he has the best statistics of his career: 14.8 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists (we’ve already mentioned his blocks), and 34:41 of playing time per game.
Small forward Igor Volkhin has fit in perfectly with the Saratov team: he is scoring 10.0 points and is the team leader in rebounds (7.2) and steals (1.2).
Shooting guard Vitalijus Pranauskis shoots 3-pointers at an impressive 54.5% accuracy (1.0 of 1.8 attempts per game), thus averaging 7.0 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists.
Avtodor’s roster is quite young: only one player is over 28 years old—31-year-old center Artyom Klimenko. He averages 7.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 0.8 blocks per game.
Grigory Motovilov has had a strong start to the season: 10.5 points, 1.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.2 blocks. In terms of plus/minus (-1.2), Avtodor currently has no one better than this shooting guard, who spent two seasons (2019-2021) with Lokomotiv Kuban.
Another Avtodorian with two seasons of experience at our club is Saratov head coach Milenko Bogićević, who was Saša Obradović‘s assistant from 2016 to 2018 and was part of the team winning the 2017/18 Russian Cup and the EuroCup silver medal that same season.
With 4 wins and 2 losses, Loko is currently tied for 4th-6th place with Zenit and MBA-MAI. Avtodor, with a 2-4 record, is in 8th place. The Saratov team has lost their previous 3 games (77:87 to Uralmash, 73:93 to BETCITY PARMA, 68:87 to UNICS), but all of those were away. However, Bogićević‘s team is currently unbeaten at home, having defeated Yenisei (76:73) and Samara (84:76).
This will be the teams’ 25th game in the VTB United League. Right now, Lokomotiv Kuban has won 20 times, while Avtodor has won only 4 times, with their last victory coming on November 15, 2020, when they secured a clutch at home, 89:85. Since then, Loko has won 11 games in a row, which, for sure, doesn’t guarantee anything in Saratov on October 29. We expect the Krasnodar team to deliver a game that will allow us to say their victory was absolutely deserved.
Go Loko!