Week In Review: UNICS Dazzles, Fridzon’s Milestone And CSKA’s Road Trip

Week In Review: UNICS Dazzles, Fridzon’s Milestone And CSKA’s Road Trip

Trend
Over seven games, the winning team won by an average of 26.8 points this week! Guess we know now who stayed busy over the summer…

But seriously, don’t put much stock in Week 1 blowouts. Teams will get better. There’s a lot of late-game drama and wild finishes to come.

Promo
Kazan is fired up for the season.

Rebuild
It’s a new era in Kazan with head coach Dimitrios Priftis and the departure of Keith Langford. The team won’t revolve around one player this season. With the exception of Martins Meiers (Latvia), the club had everyone available during preseason and it showed. Kazan looked like a team in midseason form, playing organized defense and knocking down 11 of 23 3-pointers to crush Zenit in the season opener (94-60). The future looks bright for UNICS.

Redemption
A year ago, center Stephane Lasme received a one-year suspension for using prohibited substances from the Turkish Basketball Federation. Under contract to Galatasaray at the time, many thought it was the end of his European career. But Lasme spent the 2016-17 season in the NBA D-League and returned to the continent this summer, inking a deal with UNICS. 

After an outstanding debut against Zenit on Thursday, it looks like the 34-year-old center and 2013 EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year has quite a bit left in the tank. 

Historic Margin
34 – UNICS set a record for biggest margin of victory in the League season opener.

False Start
Zenit’s summer began with a reshuffling of the front office. There was also a ton of turnover on the roster with many stars departing. In the end, St. Petersburg brought in an almost entirely new cast of players. Coupled with a rash of preseason injuries, Vasily Karasev simply didn’t have much time to prepare for the start of the season.

In Kazan, Zenit played without Scottie Reynolds, Shayne Whittington, Evgeny Voronov and Anton Pushkov, while Sergey Karasev played with a 40-degree fever. After reaching the playoff semifinals last season, St. Petersburg opened 2017-18 with a defeat. 

On Sunday, Zenit rebounded against Parma at home, cruising to a 98-73 win.  Several players returned from injury, Drew Gordon put up 27 points and 14 rebounds, and St. Petersburg showed glimpses of the team that rolled to a 21-3 record last season, though the cast is different. 

Road Trip
Reigning champs CSKA opened the season with two road games, totaling 7,000 km on the Moscow – Krasnoyarsk – Astana – Moscow itinerary. But the Army Men didn’t seem fazed by the travel and jet lag. Dimitris Itoudis substituted freely in both games and CSKA powered past Enisey and Astana and took over 1st place in the standings.

Effective
CSKA leader Nando De Colo only needed one half against Astana to put the game out of reach. The Frenchman scored 24 points (5-7 from the field, 13-13 at the line) and drew 10 fouls in less than 20 minutes on the court, earning a 26 efficiency rating.

Veteran
Khimki captain Sergey Monia made his 400th appearance for Moscow Region in the win over Tsmoki-Minsk, 83-55.

Return
Ivan Lazarev played for Zenit at the beginning of the 2014-15 season. From there, he spent time at Ryazan and Dynamo Moscow before joining CSKA. The center won two VTB United League titles and the 2015-16 EuroLeague in Moscow. In search of new work this summer, he decided to return to injury-plagued Zenit. In his debut against Parma, Lazarev recorded six points and four rebounds, knocking down all three field-goal attempts. 

Dunk
Cedric Simmons showed why he’s one of the most explosive players in the League, though it wasn’t enough to stop Krasnodar from winning in Tallinn. The visitors played impressive team basketball, stifling Kalev’s offense much of the game. But they couldn’t keep Simmons down for the entire 40 minutes.

Attack
Khimki became the first team this season to score over 100 points, defeating VEF in Riga (104-64). This may be one of Khimki’s strongest rosters ever. Georgios Bartzokas has a lot of options on offense, as evidenced by Moscow Region’s combined 187 points in Week 1. The club looks like a frontrunner to lead the League in scoring. 

Debut
Thomas Robinson made his debut for Khimki against VEF. One of the biggest free-agent signings in Europe this summer, the #5 pick in the 2012 NBA Draft looked sharp in 18 minutes, recording six points, three rebounds, one steal and one block. He also had this sick alley-oop in the 4th quarter, set up by Viacheslav Zaitcev. 

Stat
2,000 – CSKA guard Vitaly Fridzon became the first player to record more than 2,000 points in the VTB United League. 

Quote
Zenit head coach Vasily Karasev:
– There are different ways to lose. Against UNICS, it felt like we had a team of 40-year-olds, who walked and conserved energy. We had the same type of strange start last season, but figured it out. I think if the guys get healthy, the situation will change. 

Stars
Stephane Lasme (UNICS)
The Gabonian became the 3rd player after Anthony Randolph (Lokomotiv-Kuban, 2014-15) and Travis Nelson (Bisons, 2014-15) with 20 points, seven rebounds and five blocks in one game.

Vitaly Fridzon (CSKA)
Fridzon may not have set the world on fire with 21 points combined against Enisey and Astana, but he deserves to be on this list for becoming the first player to score 2,000 points in the League. 

Drew Gordon (Zenit)
Gordon shone, despite a mixed result for St. Petersburg in Week 1. Two games, two double-doubles–22+10 and 27+14–and 2nd in efficiency rating around the League. 

Photo
Our top 10 images of the week.