Results of regular matches of the Russian Super League
A slight difference in the score of this match should not mislead anyone. There was only one team on the site of the Kazan Basket-Hall - in the full sense of the word. The other was a motley set of strong separately, but helpless in the aggregate, scattered basketball players.
The team of Sergei Elevich, who was left without injured Mozgov, Savkov and Dyachka, and who was unable to announce all the numerous legionnaires for the Super League match (this time short matches on the bus pulled Gorenz, Okuladzha and Torres), suddenly found himself in a situation of understaffing. However, the Khimki team should not complain about this: the UNICS coach Antanas Sireika involved an equivalent number of performers.
After the fast first twenty minutes (37:38), marked by the astonishing accuracy of shots by the Khimki basketball players, the starting fuse of the guests was quietly faded. The hosts hastened to introduce a real totalitarian regime on the floor. Describing the three-point arc, the ball regularly arrived at the next Kazan sniper, who, without a twinge of conscience, and without much resistance, sent him straight into the ring. Khimki did not find counterarguments. Failure in the third quarter (9:20) doomed them to chaotic attempts to escape in the end, which were unsuccessful.
Teams left a polar impression on themselves. UNICS looked generally solid. It is noticeable that Kazan is still in its infancy, there are enough roughnesses and gaps in their game. But now the contours of the tactical pattern, the chosen path of development, and a good perspective are already visible. The defense of UNICS is functioning with a minimum of errors today, and the desire of the wards of Shireyka to gradually and clearly implement the plans of the mentor in the attack is gradually beginning to bear fruit. It is gratifying that this season Petr Samoilenko, the best Super League distributor, was revealed in a new way, who used to be often blamed for the shortage of playmaker qualities. Krzysztof Lavrynovych returned his former form, plowing for himself and for that guy - brother Dariusz. It seems that with all the summer acquisitions in Tatarstan they guessed right.
And what about Khimki? Unfortunately, nothing new. And, therefore, good. And there’s nothing much to be surprised at.
To ridicule Sergei Elevich’s talents, saying, for example, that only the Serbian suffix at the end of his last name connects him with coaching art, has become almost the rule of etiquette in a basketball party. At the same time, many somehow forget about the undeniable organizational virtues of the head of Khimki. Or about if not colossal, then about at least the continuous progress of club performances at the domestic and international levels. On the specific benefits of the Russian team. Indeed, the generous feeding of Fridzon's playing time imperceptibly turned him into one of the best attacking defenders of the country (even in a frankly unsuccessful match for the team with UNICS, Vitaliy gathered a nice-looking bouquet of 8 points, 9 rebounds and 8 fouls earned by his guardians).
However, doubts about the viability of the specialist Elevich are still fair, appropriate, and difficult to refute. In terms of staffing, a club near Moscow today in Russia is second only, it seems, to CSKA. The length of the bench - to no one at all. For many years, cheering patriotically advocating for the purification of domestic sports from foreign impurities in the form of legionnaires, Elevich ultimately gathered eight of them in a team! Moreover, each - the level of the Euroleague, one more beautiful. However, the acquisition of the three leaders of the late St. Petersburg Dynamo does not mean that Khimki will automatically play Katsikaris in smart and harmonious basketball. The game model practiced in the suburbs of Moscow is a bet on the independence and experience of highly qualified masters, of whom Khimki has an abundance - the choice is rash and fundamentally wrong. Involuntarily surprised (and extremely unpleasant), looking at how confusedly looking for a place in Kazan "clearing" intellectual McCarthy. Or, like at the climax of the meeting, right under its curtain, Booker supplies the UNICS headquarters with an ingenious pass. After all, it is clear that this is not the fault of the Americans, but the sad result of the lack of a systematic approach, a coaching hand. Attack options - transfer under the shield of Volkowicki (let him figure it out later), Booker’s self-centered solo, hope for Pozzecco’s ingenuity. Everything. The rest - according to the situation, how it will come out. In the championship of Russia such a basketball can bring bronze medals, in the ULEB cup - a quarter-final. Hardly more. Will such achievements satisfy Khimki’s ambitions? Also hardly.
Nikita GOLOVANOV