As a reminder, we covered most of the Lokomotiv and CSKA players in our big preview.
Among those not included in that publication, Semyon Antonov stands out—he is, after all, CSKA’s captain. However, his statistics show that he’s only 10th on his team in minutes played. Still, he’s a strong three-point shooter (43.1%—1 hit out of 2.3 attempts per game) and has a great plus/minus (9.3—4th on the team). The forward showed exactly that in Game 1 of the semifinals: 12.5 minutes played (10th among his teammates), 3 points (scoring on 1/2 three-pointers), and “+4” (only Ivan Ukhov, with “+5”, was better on their team). In 6 games this season against Lokomotiv, Antonov averaged 3.2 points, 44.5% three-pointers, 2.8 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.5 steals, 0.2 blocks, and efficiency rating of 5.
Alexander Gankevich was present on CSKA’s roster for the first game of the semifinals, but didn’t get any minutes. Since the start of the championship, he’s played 3 times against Lokomotiv, leading his team in blocks (0.7) in our matchup. Against us, he’s also averaging 0.7 steals, 1.3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 2.3 points, all in 7.5 minutes of playing time. Overall, the power forward has played 27 games across all competitions this season, averaging 10 minutes per game with averages of 3.4 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1 assist, 0.4 steals, and 0.2 blocks.
Point guard Vladimir Karpenko also did not take the court in the first game of the semifinals. The 25-year-old has played 30 games in the VTB United League and the VTB United Cup this season combined, averaging 9 minutes, 3 points, 0.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 0.6 steals. Karpenko played 4 of those games against Lokomotiv, and the March VTB United Cup game was his 3rd-highest scoring game of the season, with 10 points.
Alexander Chadov was out of the roster on Tuesday, despite playing in 5 games against Lokomotiv this season, averaging 3.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, and one steal in 12 minutes. Andreas Pistiolis plays the power forward significantly more often than Gankevich – 37 games in the league and cup, averaging 10 minutes. This may be due to Chadov‘s willingness to attack from beyond the arc, shooting a good percentage (36.7% on 1.6 attempts per game), and occasionally getting on fire–recently Alexander scored 18 points in 9 minutes against Mega, and nearly recorded a double-double (19+9 in February against MBA-MAI).
Lokomotiv Kuban played with 9 players in the 1st game of the semifinals. Makar Konovalov received the least amount of time – 1 minute 48 seconds, during which he made 1 assist and 2 fouls. For the point guard, who is a product of the CSKA academy, this was his 6th game of the season against his native team–and so far, these games haven’t been going well for him: he’s averaging 2 points, 0.2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 0.3 steals in 9 minutes (compared to his season averages of 3.9 points, 1.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.4 steals in 13 minutes). How Konovalov spends his minutes on the court on Thursday could have a significant impact on the outcome.
Danil Sheyanov has been performing very well in many key metrics in the season series against CSKA: 8.5 points on 60% two-pointers and 42.9% three-pointers, 1.5 rebounds and assists each, and an efficiency rating of 5.5. But it’s important to remember that the forward only played in 2 such games–those in which Lokomotiv lost by “–40” and “–30”, so the 22-year-old was clearly given the opportunity to gain experience. Let’s hope this experience proves useful when it matters most!
Ivan Samoylenko was one of three Lokomotiv players who were on the roster on Tuesday but didn’t see any playing time (the other two were Sheyanov and Daniil Kasko, whom we covered in our previous preview). Samoylenko started the season playing a lot, but got an injury shortly before Tomislav Tomović‘s arrival at Lokomotiv, and hasn’t yet regained big minutes since returning. We’ll all be glad to see the same Ivan who scored 15 points against Uralmash and 13 against Parma in the intra-season cup, where he didn’t miss a single shot the entire game.
Ilya Popov also plays noticeably less this spring–apparently due to Alen Hadzibegovic arrival. Popov has played 4 times against CSKA Moscow this season (3.3 points and 2.3 rebounds in 12 minutes). Aside of this,, there were games this season when the center showed he could handle a quality opponent’s frontcourt–like when he scored 21 points in November against BETCITY PARMA, featuring Terrell Carter, Gleb Firsov, and a then-still-playing Mikael Hopkins.
The May 14th match starts at 7:30 PM. In Krasnodar, we will be playing on May 18th and 20th. Hurry and buy your tickets!
Go, Lokomotiv!