Before the third victory: what to expect from the United League playoffs

On Tuesday, April 22, the playoffs of the 16th season of the VTB United League will start. The last participant was Parma, which confidently beat IBA-MAI in the decisive play-in match. Now Permians will play Zenit in a series of up to three wins. Evgeny Pashutin's team is unlikely to be able to create serious problems for the winners of the regular season, given the short rotation and the strength of the opponents. Nizhny Novgorod and Avtodor have little chance of winning at least one match of the series. CSKA and UNICS are objectively stronger — the first round for the Moscow and Kazan teams will be a good warm-up before the face-to-face semi-finals. But in the fourth pair, fans have the right to expect a serious blowout: Uralmash is capable of giving Lokomotiv Kuban a fight with a debutant coach. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

Record series

The Yekaterinburg club won two series matches against Zenit in the first round of the playoffs last year, and this season it has only become stronger. Rostislav Vergun's team confidently became the best team outside the top 4, and the season series with Loko ended with a score of 2-2. Moreover, the two final matches remained for the Uralians. And if the April regular season game was played in semi-reserve squads (it had no effect on the distribution of places in the table), then in early March Uralmash won at home against the optimal Kuban roster. The heroes of that match were Hayden Dalton and Anton Kardanakhishvili, who came from Samara in the middle of the season, as well as the best regular sniper Jeremiah Martin. Restraining Martin is the main task of the Loko players. And if their link with Octavius Ellis works, as originally expected, then Uralmash can count on a lot.

Still, the opponent has certain problems. Due to the severe injuries to B.J. Johnson and Carvel Anderson, the coaching staff had to integrate two newcomers into the squad: Tajer McCall and John Jenkins, who have not yet shown the same effectiveness as the retired foreign players. Plus, it's worth noting that for the club's president, Andrey Vedishchev, this will be his first experience in the playoffs as a head coach. And this is a definite risk, given that the fate of most matches in the series is likely to be decided in nervous endings.

— How would you rate your team's chances? I don't know how to answer such questions," Ilya Popov, Uralmash's center, told Izvestia. — It's probably more for the coach to lay out some tactical things. As for the players, we need to go out and do what the mentor asks, and then we'll see which side the basketball god will be on. One thing I can say for sure: the series will be interesting.

Zenit, with the arrival of Alexey Shved and Okaro White (they replaced Xavier Moon and Omari Spellman, respectively), still does not know the bitterness of defeats, ending the regular season with a series of 20 wins in a row. Therefore, the task of the blue-white-blues for the first round of the playoffs is to go through it undefeated for the first time in three years. And this is realistic, considering that Parma is not in the best condition. In the play-in, Permians lost to Nizhny Novgorod without a chance, but they were able to gather for the decisive match with IBA-MAI.

"Everyone knows Alexey [Shved] as a mega—positive person, a cool player," Zenit captain Sergey Karasev told Izvestia. — He joined the team as quickly as possible, there were no problems at all. Okaro [White] is a workable guy. It was always difficult to play against him in the VTB League. Plus, he's very sociable. So I can say that these were just perfect signings. Overall, the team has a great atmosphere and cohesion. If it hadn't been for that, then there wouldn't have been a winning streak of 20 wins in a row (a blue-white-blue club record).

Selective selection: why Zenit and CSKA are leading in the VTB League

The favorites of the season strengthened in the off-season, UNICS is stalling, and "Samara" refuses from foreigners

The only thing that speaks in favor of Parma is that the Permians have already completed the task for the season and can play in the 1/4 finals at their own pleasure. And if players like Samson Ruzhentsev, Garrett Nevels, and Stanley Whittaker catch the wind, it won't be easy to stop them. Especially in a crowded "Hammer", so we may well see some competitive games.

Win over newbies

In the series with Avtodor, UNICS will try to beat two newcomers, Marcus Keen and Darran Hilliard, who joined the team before the playoffs. However, even this factor is unlikely to help Saratov residents. In the regular season, Kazan defeated Bogichevich's wards three times out of four, and the picture is unlikely to change in the playoffs. The constant pressure of Velimir Perasovich's team is very inconvenient for the sixth seeds, who do not have a powerful bench. At the same time, it is interesting how Avtodor's leader, Caleb Agada, will show himself in the playoff matches. During the regular season, he demonstrated that he is capable of being promoted.

You can also expect miracles in the playoffs from Alex Hamilton. The Paris NN point guard was close to a triple-double in the play-in match with Parma and will surely come fully armed for the series with CSKA. Let's remind that in the regular season, out of four face-to-face meetings, three remained for the red and blue, and once the success was celebrated by the players from Nizhny Novgorod. The people of the Volga region gain additional strength in their native walls, and it is not an easy task to win on their parquet floor. That is why it is so important for the current champions to ensure the necessary groundwork at home games and go away with a positive attitude.