Week in review: Khimki smash UNICS, Isaiah Whitehead shocks Zenit

Stay calm.

Khimki pace up and smash UNICS

Last year’s semifinalists Khimki and UNICS were supposed to be the hottest faceoff of this weekend. And the first minutes of the game lived up to the expectations:

However, Khimki maintained the fire mode, and UNICS didn’t manage to keep up, and as a result trailed by 17 by the halftime break.

In the second half Khimki applied even more pressure and were close to the biggest win over Kazan in VTB League – 109:83. After the game, Rimas Kurtinaitis gave a credit to his team for the efforts, and Dimitris Priftis admitted they had lost in the first period.

Alexey Shved and Devin Booker led Khimki to the 6th victory. The duo scored 45 points with amazing accuracy: 17 of 23 field goals!

UNICS lost 3 of 5 games which puts them on the 8th place with a negative win-loss record. Khimki is the only undefeated team of the League.

Jeremy Evans named October MVP

Before the tip-off, Jeremy Evans was awarded the October MVP. He has the record of 12.0 points, 69.6% field goals, 7.0 rebounds and 18.6 efficiency points per game.

Astana and Isaiah Whitehead push Zenit away from playoffs

Kazakhstan capital held probably the brightest game of the season. Astana and Zenit got it to the OT, and the result was decided by insane three-pointer 5 seonds to the buzzer.

Astana could manage in the regulation time as the home team led 17 points after the first half (even had +19 at some point). Nonetheless, Zenit erased the margin within one quarter:

And then, 0.3 seconds to the end of the regulation time Dmitry Khvostov made a shot aimed to rescue Zenit (at least it looked like):

It’s curious that Astana led by Emil Rajkovikj has played only one overtime – against Zenit! In April 2019, in Saint Petersburg the home team won and were really close this Monday in Nur-Sultan. 17 seconds before the buzzer, Zenit were leading by 2, but Isaiah Whitehead didn’t want another overtime and shot from beyond the arc:

Isaiah Whitehead was the hero of the clutch, but other leaders of Astana shall be mentioned as well: Dusan Ristic (30 points, 5 rebounds), Jeremiah Hill (25 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals).

This victory got Astana into the playoffs zone pushing away Zenit with four losses in a row.

Achievement

Something to cheer up Zenit fans. Dmitry Khvostov passed Milos Teodosic as VTB League all-time assists leader.

The third place belongs to Branko Mirkovic of Tsmoki, and it seems like he’s gonna pass Teodosic this season: Minsk guard makes 6.8 assists per game. Alexey Shved should also be mentioned: 4th place, 702 career assists and 8.3 per game this season.

Played garage basketball against CSKA

That’s how Avtodor head coach Evgeny Pashutin described the game at CSKA. “We started playing garage basketball: the guy with the ball makes a shot. We lost the scheme.” Saratov made some changes in the break to cut the margin from -16 to -8, but they couldn’t handle CSKA.

The Army club scored 103 points proving they have one of the League’s best offense. Plus, the Red-blues made some highlights:

However, Elgin Cook became the top scorer of the game. Avtodor forward scored 33 which is the second best of this season.

PARMA still can’t beat Zielona Gora

Last season, at that time League’s rookie Zielona Gora beat PARMA twice, and both wins were big: +20 and +23. Perm came to Poland seaking revenge, but found no success as Zielona Gora controlled the game since the middle of the 1st quarter.

The home team had of their best performances in VTB League scoring 106 points. This was mentioned by PARMA head coach Kazys Maskvytis, “I’m surprised we’ve allowed 88 points and still lost. This tells a lot about our defense”.

Assist of the week

Adas Juskevicius fooled the opponents, and Artem Zabelin thanked the partner with a slam:

Scores

In every game, at least one team scored 100 ppoints. The numbers of the weekend are astonishing: average of 91 points by each team! Not to mention that after 6 weeks only 2 teams: CSKA (93.3) and Khimki (92.3) score more than 90 points per game.

Crossover of the month

Nikita Mikhailovskii (Avtodor), Kyle Vinales (Kalev) and Dominez Burnett (Tsmoki-Minsk) fight for the title of October best crossover:

Team of the week

Standings

Khimki still undefeated, Astana in playoffs.