In the semifinals of the VTB United League playoffs, the second series started, in which Lokomotiv-Kuban and UNICS were sorting out the relationship. The first match ended in favor of the Kazan club 98:87. The guests were confidently leading throughout almost the entire game, nevertheless Krasnodar were able to transfer it to overtime. The second meeting of the teams will take place on Thursday and also at the site of railway workers in Krasnodar.
This season Lokomotiv and UNICS have already crossed paths several times. And if the Kuban team won twice in the VTB United League regular championship, thus securing a higher seeding number in the playoffs, then in the Eurocup quarterfinal series the Kazan team took the upper hand – 2: 1. In this tournament, UNICS, as you know, reached the final and practically completed the main task, having won a ticket to the next Euroleague. But Lokomotiv has clearly not yet satisfied its ambitions.
It was he who seemed to be the favorite in the semifinals – at least thanks to the advantage of the home court. However, it was leveled not only by the absence due to injury of the leader of the railroad workers and MVP of the regular season Mantas Kalnietis, who missed the quarterfinals with Khimki, but also the loss of another defender – Nigel Williams-Goss, who shot 50 points in two matches with the Moscow Region team.
It seems that Krasnodar spent a lot of energy in the confrontation with Khimki and did not immediately switch to the series with UNICS. While they were swinging, the opponent created a fairly solid handicap.
Only when the score was 0:13, Evgeny Pashutin’s wards were able to print the Kazan ring. However, they could not manage to suppress the firing points of the guests, in which Okaro White and Isaiah Canaan were especially raging, who scored 14 and 10 points in the quarter, respectively. UNICS won the first ten minutes convincingly – 29:16, having realized six long-range shots out of nine.
In the second period, Lokomotiv quickly reduced the gap to minus four, but there was one more joker in the deck of Kazan head coach Dimitris Priftis. When the main snipers got up to reload, Pavel Antipov successfully coped with the role of the slaughterer. His 11 points, including three “threes”, allowed UNICS to restore a comfortable difference and go to the big break, leading 46:32. While the guests hit nine times from behind the arc, the hosts threw from a distance and rarely, making only eight attempts, and by no means aptly – with a zero percentage of accuracy. In addition, Kevin Hervey, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Will Cummings were actually pulling the entire Lokomotiv three together, but Drew Gordon, whose productivity was highly counted on, in the first half was not marked with effective actions.
In the third quarter, the central Krasnodar team corrected himself and even scored from behind the six-meter line, but still, his performance still left much to be desired. But the Kazan team gradually played out John Brown and Jamar Smith, and even Dmitry Uzinsky put in his five points, after which UNICS took this segment of the meeting too – 69:54. Moreover, in the opening of the fourth period after Antipov’s dunk, the superiority of the guests reached its maximum – “plus 19”. And it seemed that there would be no further struggle. Nevertheless, Lokomotiv did not unstuck and made an impressive leap. Grigory Motovilov, who had languished in reserve for a long time, took the most active part in this pursuit. He brought the team seven points and threw in a very important “three”, which was only the third and, as it turned out, the last for Krasnodar in the match.
Another substitute, Reggie Lynch, leveled the score – 79:79 – and moved the game into overtime. In the extra five minutes the hosts even took the lead for the first time. True, they did not polish for long.
Brown and Smith, who scored 19 points each, finished off Lokomotiv with the support of Nate Walters – 98:87. By the way, six players finished the game with ten or more points in Kazan, and Brown also recorded a “double-double” in his asset, adding 13 rebounds. In throws from beyond the arc, they did have a fivefold advantage, having sent 15 three-pointers to the target. Now, perhaps, the alignment in this pair can change dramatically. The initiative is already clearly on the side of UNICS, whose chances of reaching the final have become more preferable.
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