“We played an incredibly weak match”: why did Lokomotiv rout UNICS so easily?

UNICS suffered its second defeat of the season. In Krasnodar the Kazan team was routed by “Lokomotiv-Kuban”

UNICS began the second month of the regular championship of the new season of the VTB United League in Krasnodar. The opponent — the local “Lokomotiv-Kuban.” The club from the south of Russia has long been part of the elite of the “big four.” “Lokomotiv-Kuban” is famous for its basketball academy and every year gives the championship new original young names. Besides, in the playoffs the Krasnodar team stably reaches at least the semifinal. “Lokomotiv-Kuban” in its history has never become champion of the VTB United League, although once it was very close to gold. In 2023 the Krasnodar team reached the final, where it lost to UNICS, which was then led by Velimir Perasovic.

“Lokomotiv-Kuban” is a team, so to speak, with its own identity. Among the clubs of the “big four” the Krasnodar team has the smallest budget. The team does not allow itself too expensive transfers, like the same “Zenit” or CSKA. Nevertheless the management of “Lokomotiv-Kuban” knows how to choose quality legionnaires.

One of such is the center Alen Hadzibegovic. The Montenegrin basketball player today became one of the X-factors of “Lokomotiv-Kuban's” victory. In 19 minutes on the parquet Hadzibegovic scored 23 points and recorded three rebounds and three steals.

“Lokomotiv-Kuban” neutralized the threats in the attack from Samanic and Reynolds

The confrontations of the big players (centers, heavy forwards) in the match of UNICS and “Lokomotiv-Kuban” can in principle be called the most important events of the plot of the game. As phenomenal a performance was shown by Alen Hadzibegovic and Gleb Firsov (15 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal), to the same extent Jalen Reynolds and Luka Samanic were not in their element.

Yes, if one looks at the statistics of the “bigs” at UNICS, at first it may seem that there is nothing to reproach them for a bad game. Samanic has 13 points, Reynolds — 15. But look at the percentage of two-point conversion (both have less than 50%). Take a look at the number of converted free throws by Samanic (three out of eight), and everything will fall into place.

“Lokomotiv-Kuban” perfectly managed to neutralize the threat from the two leading players of UNICS. The tight marking of Samanic and Reynolds brought its fruits. “Lokomotiv-Kuban” played precisely as a cohesive collective and was a single coordinated mechanism on the parquet. Which was rightly noted by the head coach Tomislav Tomovic at the press conference.

— We today played our best match in the current season. And I am proud of the team. I would be proud of them even if we had won with a margin of only one point, and the match had not been so high-scoring. Because I am very pleased with how exactly we achieved this victory. We were a real team: 32 assists, only 11 turnovers. The players rushed for every ball and gave their all in defense. Today we saw in what direction one needs to follow. The season is long; there will be both good days and bad ones. But if we play as we did today, anything is possible, said Tomovic.

“We will work diligently so that the like does not repeat”

The head coach of “Lokomotiv-Kuban," Tomislav Tomovic, clearly showed how he corresponds to the current requirements of European basketball. The Krasnodar team at this hour has in its roster two fives of players equal in strength and mastery. Thanks to this the southerners throughout four quarters can maintain high dynamics and a fast tempo and, correspondingly, score more than 100 points against such a serious opponent as UNICS. In the roster of “Lokomotiv-Kuban” only one person finished the game with UNICS without scored points — Maxim Barashkov. All the rest recorded scoring.

The fighting capability of “Lokomotiv-Kuban” stands out strongly against the background of the limited roster of UNICS. When the game is not going for the leaders of the Kazan team: Xavier Rathan-Mayes (7 points, two of eight shots from mid-range, one of five converted “threes”), Luka Samanic, Jalen Reynolds — Milan Karakash simply has no one to replace them with. Alexander Gudumak played four minutes, Nikita Mikhailovsky — a little more than a minute, Dmitry Uzinsky spent six minutes on the parquet, and Sergei Klyuev never came onto the court.

The depth of the UNICS bench has always been a painful question for Velimir Perasovic. It is also relevant now for Milan Karakash, especially in connection with the injury of the most important playmaker — Alexey Shved. UNICS failed the match with “Lokomotiv-Kuban," and the sixteen missed free throws by the Kazan team would seem to be the apogee of the catastrophic performance in Krasnodar.

— I congratulate the opponent on a deserved victory. As for us, when you concede 107 points, one can talk about one's mistakes for a very long time. Before the game I said that we needed to pay attention to the number of our turnovers and to how “Lokomotiv” runs away into fast breaks. We were unable to control any of this. And in addition to this we played too softly — for example, in the third quarter the opponent managed to score 23 points before we committed our first foul. And the 16 misses from the free-throw line speak of problems with concentration. In short, we played an incredibly weak match. We will work diligently so that the like does not repeat, summarized Karakash.

The next match in the VTB United League UNICS will play away against “Avtodor” on November 6. The defeat to “Lokomotiv-Kuban” became the most crushing for the Kazan team this season.