Uralmash hasn’t won since November, suffering 7 straight losses, including the Winline Basket Cup. Currently, our opponent is tied with Yenisei for 7th-8th place in the league, with both teams having just 6wins in 18 games.
The only Uralmash player in the league’s top 10 in any of the key statistical metrics is shooting guard Garrett Nevels. He’s 9th in the tournament in scoring (16.2 points per game). He’s logged the most court time on his team (28:08), averaging 4.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and a 3-point shooting percentage of 43.9% (2.5 of 5.8 attempts per game).
Power forward Tyrell Nelson is second in Yekaterinburg in points (12.8), best in rebounds (5.6), but worst in box plus/minus (–5.0). His stats also include 1.9 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.4 blocks.
Third in scoring for our opponent is point guard Timofey Gerasimov (11.6). The Lokomotiv Kuban Academy alumnus also averages 2.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.0 steals per game.
Point guard Isaiah Reese has only played 4games for Uralmash so far, but he’s already leading the team in assists (3.8). Other fresh stats for the VTB United League MVP for March 2023 (Reese was playing for PARMA at the time) include 8.0 points and 1.0 steals.
One of the most important players on the Ural team’s front line is power forward Javonte Douglas, whose season averages include 7.3 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.3 steals (the best on his team) and 0.4 blocks.
Octavius Ellis leads Uralmash in blocks (0.5). He also averages 9.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 0.8 steals.
Power forward Hayden Dalton is the only one to play in all 18 games for the Yekaterinburg team this season, and he’s started more games than any other teammate (16 times). He’s 4th on his team in scoring (10.4) and rebounds (4.4), tied for 2nd–3rd in blocks (0.4), and shares the lead in box plus/minus (+0.6) with Ivan Pynko.
Last season (or rather, the portion of it spent with Uralmash) was a breakthrough for Anton Kardanakhishvili. The 23-year-old point guard continues to improve in the current championship: he’s playing 24 minutes (up one compared to last season), scoring, rebounding, and assisting more than last year (8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 3.3 assists versus his previous 7.4 + 2.2 + 3.0), and he’s stealing slightly fewer, but not significantly (0.7 versus 0.8).
This will be Lokomotiv’s 3rd game against Uralmash this season, and the visitors have won the previous 2. In the season opener on September 28, Rostislav Vergun‘s team won 86:85 thanks to a buzzer-beater by Nevels. And on November 18, our team, playing with a rotation of 9 players (with Vince Hunter as the only legionnaire), played one of its best games of the season, grabbing an 87:69 victory from Yekaterinburg.
We believe that the current challenging situation will once again help Lokomotiv get together, play as a team, and delight everyone who will be cheering for our team in the stands of Basket Hall and on their monitors with a victory.
