Anyone who watched the opening game of the current VTB United League season still remembers Nevels‘ offensive threat—his shot at the buzzer earned Uralmash an 86:85 victory over Lokomotiv Kuban.
Since then, the Yekaterinburg team has had tense endings in every game except one—against CSKA in Moscow (72:95). In the past 10 days alone, Uralmash won in Perm (88:87), then in Bosnia and Herzegovina against Igokea in the intra-season cup (91:86 in overtime), but failed to defeat Yenisei in Krasnoyarsk (86:88). Rostislav Vergun‘s team is in 7th place in the league with an even win-loss record of 5-5.
Timofey Gerasimov hasn’t played a single game in November so far – his 11.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.1 steals would have been very useful for the Ural team in recent games. Uralmash’s other point guard, Anton Kardanakhishvili (9.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists), also missed the game against Yenisei. In their absence, the aforementioned Garrett Nevels has been leading the team. This shooting guard currently has top-notch statistics: 18.9 points (4th in the league), 3.2 rebounds, and 3.6 assists. He shoots 3-pointers with 55.8% accuracy (3.2 out of 5.8 attempts), and free throws with 100% accuracy.
Power forward Tyrell Nelson is 2nd on the team in scoring (12.4), 1st in rebounds (5.4) and steals (1.1). His 2.1 assists and 0.3 blocks are also worth mentioning.
Another Uralmash power forward, Hayden Dalton, averages 11.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.6 steals and 0.6 blocks – he is the best on the team in this statistic, as well as in plus/minus (+4.9).
Javonte Douglas (who, by the way, is also a power forward) contributes to his team in a variety of ways: he makes 46.7% of his 3-pointers (0.7 of 1.5 attempts per game), scores 7.8 points, makes 5.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.8 steals and 0.4 blocks.
Center Octavius Ellis is gradually returning to his best conditions. So far, he’s played in 6 games with 16 minutes per game, and has averaged 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.2 blocks.
Another key player on Uralmash’s front line is center Vladimir Ivlev. The team captain is averaging 2.3 points, 2.7 rebounds, and is 2nd among his teammates in plus/minus (+1.2).
Uralmash ranks in the league’s Top 3 in two statistical metrics:they are 3rd in 3-point percentage (38.1%), and 1st in free throw accuracy (82.0%). Another player who contributes significantly to these figures is point guard Igor Novikov, with his 50% shooting from 3-point range (0.7 of 1.3) and i100% free throw accuracy. This allows him to average 4.7 points, complementing them with 1.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 0.7 steals.
However, Lokomotiv also has some good team stats: we are 1st in the league in rebounds (38.3) and steals (9.3), 3rd in assists (20.2).But more important is that their character and discipline improved clearly in recent games.
At the moment, we’ve now won 7 official games against Uralmash, including the Russian Cup; they’ve won 6. Now’s the time to once again show our spirit and pay back the Yekaterinburg team for the September result.
We believe in the team! The game starts at 5:30 PM Moscow time. Go, Loko!