The Volga team could still make up for four wins against Avtodor and move up a spot, but in practice, their team is likely already playing without any tournament pressure – and perhaps they’re still eager to secure their first home win this season.
Lokomotiv Kuban travels to Samara in good mood after their 81:72 away victory over Zenit. Could this backfire on the team? Let’s try to guess based on examples from this season.
After their previous victory over Zenit, 95:85 in Krasnodar on January 18th, we hosted Samara and experienced some difficulties. The score was tied at halftime, and it wasn’t until the 4th quarter that we managed to gain a comfortable lead – the final buzzer witnessed a 96:79 score. 18-year-old guard Artyom Pivtsaikin was great for our opponents, scoring 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1 block. After the game, their head coach Vladislav Konovalov called Pivtsaikin “the next big Samara prospect after Yegor Amosov,” who had just made his debut for Real Madrid’s main team the day before.
After we beat Zenit on November 9th (89:80), we played our next game at home against BETCITY PAMRA, and grabbed another victory (90:77). Three days later, MBA-MAI came to Krasnodar and also left empty-handed (93:79).
But there was also a reverse example this season: on February 17th, Lokomotiv beat BETCITY PARMA away (88:81). Five days later, CSKA thrashed us in Krasnodar (92:63). So, our attitude toward the game against Samara will be a key factor, as Patrick Miller mentioned in his interview.
And what about Samara? After their January game with us, they lost at home to BETCITY PARMA (74:93), and then suffered hard defeats to Zenit in St. Petersburg (52:113) and at home to MBA-MAI (51:102). The only bright spot in these games was center Dmitry Khaldeev, who scored 10 points in both matches. He has played only 7 games for the Volga club so far (5.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and a 100% three-point percentage – 1 of 1 against Zenit), but given the departure of Yevgeny Minchenko, it seems Khaldeev will be the team’s main center for the rest of the season.
Samara, however, quickly recovered from two defeats by over 50 points, securing their second victory of the season on February 12, a 95:87 road win over Avtodor. In that game, Mikhail Kulagin played for the first time in a while and scored 18 points. In just 11 appearances this season, he’s averaging 13.8 points, 3.5 assists, 5.7 fouls, and 30.5 minutes of ice time—second on his team in each of those stats.
The following week, on February 18, Samara came close to a second consecutive victory (and their first at home) – they were leading with 3 minutes remaining against Pari NN, but their opponent ultimately prevailed, 87:94. Samara’s leading scorer, Nikita Mikhailovsky, delivered another impressive performance, finishing with 28 points and 11 rebounds. This shooting guard has led the league in scoring since the start of the season (currently averaging 20.5 points), while he ranks 4th in the league in rebounds (7.3) and efficiency (21.6). His 31 minutes of playing time, 3.0 assists per game, and 6.6 fouls against him are also worth noting – a true leader.
In their first game after the international break, on March 4, Samara again came close to a home victory, this time over Uralmash (69:73). Kulagin scored 20 points, and Dmitry Cheburkin added 18 more, hitting 3 of 5 three-pointers. This power forward is averaging 12.1 points this season with 38.3% three-point shooting (1.7 of 4.5 attempts per game), 3.5 rebounds, 0.9 assists, and 0.6 steals.
A week later, Samara hosted Avtodor, and it took overtime to determine the winner. Saratov prevailed, finishing 89:94 thanks to Malik Newman‘s turbo mode (13 points in the extra five minutes). In addition to Mikhailovsky‘s fourth double-double of the season (26+11), the hosts also had 18 points from Gleb Sheiko. The small forward proved himself a solid starter, averaging 7.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 0.7 steals in 28.5 minutes.
Over the past six weeks, only Yenisei has managed to win in Samara without any nerves – 94:73 on March 17. Kulagin and Danila Pokhodyaev (17 points each) led the home team in scoring that evening. Pokhodyaev is the best three-point shooter on our opponents’ roster – 38.8% (1.7 of 4.5), helping him average 9.3 points per game, in addition to 4.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists, and 0.9 steals.
Finally, on March 22, Samara visited Nizhny Novgorod – and there again, the game was tense until the final seconds, 75:80 in favor of Pari NN. Artyom Chevarenkov had a desert game (18 points). The point guard, who played for Lokomotiv and ORSS-Lokomotiv last season, leads Samara in assists (4.2) this season, commits the most fouls (3.0 per game), averages 7.1 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 0.7 steals.
The game will begin on March 25 at 6:30 PM Moscow time.
Go, Loko!