“Reaching the semifinals has become an obligation”: UNICS sweeps playoff series against MBA-MAI

“You have to play, withstand the pressure and UNICS'S tough defense”

In the matchup between UNICS and MBA-MAI, it is difficult to single out an obvious favorite without looking at the box scores. If the first game of the VTB United League playoff quarterfinal series in Kazan ended with a confident home win 87:62 (even though MBA-MAI took an early lead in the first period), then in the second meeting, the Moscow club showed noticeable progress.

The Muscovites learned from the mistakes of the first game and started the second more convincingly — within the first minutes they built a substantial lead, winning the opening period 13:3, and the teams went into the halftime break with a score of 30:32 in favor of MBA-MAI.

— In the first half, we played terrible basketball. We missed so many three-pointers. Moreover, most of them were open shots, — UNICS head coach Velimir Perasović stated after the game.

However, UNICS remained true to themselves and again finished the game with a 20-point lead — the final scoreboard showed 83:63 in favor of Kazan. MBA-MAI head coach Vasily Karasev said after the first game of the series that against such an opponent, you have to withstand the pressure.

— There's no need to change anything. You have to play, you have to withstand the pressure and UNICS's tough defense. You have to answer their tough defense with offense. There is no other way; you have to get out of these situations, — said Karasev.

Moscow needed to play active defense as well to stop such strong Kazan players as Jalen Reynolds or Marcus Bingham — the former was named MVP, scoring 50 points over two games.

The impenetrable 63 points

MBA-MAI's last chance to show their offense and defense at 200 percent was within the walls of the Moscow “Basket-Hall” in the third game of the series. At the same time, UNICS arrived there with a surprise — Paris Lee appeared in the lineup after a month-long absence due to injury. He later contributed to his team's victory. However, Mikhail Kulagin, who had returned to the roster, was not in the lineup, nor were the new legionnaires Xavier Munford and Elijah Stewart.

“Kulagin is feeling a bit under the weather; perhaps he'll return to work tomorrow. It's a bit more complicated with the other two, as Munford has an injury, and I can say the same about Stewart. They will return to action a bit later," Perasović commented on the players' absence. Notably, there had been no earlier mention of injuries to Xavier Munford, who had been on the roster twice but did not take the court. Velimir Perasović had previously explained his absence as a coach's decision.

As in the previous two meetings, the opening period of the third game saw a successful start for MBA-MAI — the club seized the initiative and took an 11:4 lead. Notably, the Muscovites were “raining” three-pointers on their opponents. However, UNICS quickly responded to the deficit. After a minute-long timeout by head coach Velimir Perasović, the visitors managed to turn the tide of the game. By the end of the first quarter — 24:20.

In the second period, the Muscovites played aggressive basketball, allowing them not only to tie the score but also to briefly take the lead. Nevertheless, the teams finished the first half with a tied score of 40:40 and 20:16 in the quarter — capped off by an effective pass from Lee and a lob from Bingham in the final seconds.

By the middle of the third quarter, the white-green team had 12 turnovers, and the period again went to the hosts — 53:51 in the game and 13:11 in the ten-minute stretch.

— Today we faced problems on offense; we lacked mobility. The reason was that we didn't have a pure point guard. Dmitry Kulagin and Alexey Shved are combo guards who prefer to play off the ball. I hope that with the return of Paris Lee, we can improve in this component, — the Kazan head coach shared after the game.

Another 10 points in the fourth quarter, and the Muscovites' score seemed to freeze — Maxim Barashkov's three-pointer became the last score for the home team, and UNICS gradually began to pull ahead. First, 6 points from Dmitry Kulagin, including two free throws, then a two-point shot and a free throw from Mikhail Belenitsky, and Lee and Dison Pierre sealed the lead with their own two-pointers. Final score — 74:63. “We had a hard time not only in the final quarter. MBA-MAI played better than us," Perasović later recounted the game.

Two points are worth noting. First, UNICS's away game was a beautiful finale to the series, even if not particularly high-scoring. Second, the Kazan team did not allow their opponent to break through the “ceiling” of 63 points per game.

“Recently, reaching the semifinals has become an obligation for UNICS”

“I am happy with the result, because achieving a clean sweep is very difficult," shared white-green forward Andrey Lopatin. Ahead of the team lies uncertainty: their semifinal opponent could be either Zenit or Uralmash. Currently, the series between St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg is not over; the score is 2:1 in favor of Zenit.

Kazan lost to both teams in their last regular-season meetings — 69:86 and 74:82 respectively, so the long break between series is unlikely to be quiet for UNICS. At a minimum, the team needs to fully gel with the new legionnaires and work on correcting mistakes after the Moscow game. “I don't think they'll let us rest much; we'll all be working," Lopatin says.

— Recently, reaching the semifinals has become an obligation for UNICS, but it is never easy. We have achieved the minimum that the club requires of us and have secured home-court advantage. However, I believe that if we play like we did today, it won't be enough.

The best-of-seven semifinal series begins on May 11 in Kazan.

UNICS — MBA-MAI — 74:63 (24:20, 16:20, 11:13, 23:10)

The top scorer for the Kazan team today was team captain Dmitry Kulagin with 18 points. Next was the tournament MVP, Jalen Reynolds, with 11 points and 6 rebounds. Andrey Lopatin also scored 11 points and grabbed 5 rebounds.

For the home team, Aleksandr Platunov had an excellent performance with 16 points and 5 assists. Vladislav Trushkin (12 points and 4 rebounds) and Pavel Savkov (10 points) were slightly behind him.