Russian Powerhouse against the biggest surprise of the VTB United League Season, Anthony Clemmons vs. Alexey Shved,  Rimas Kurtinaitis against Emil Rajkovic.

Regular Championship:

• «Khimki» - 3-rd place (20 wins, 6 losses)
• «Astana» — 6-th place (15 wins, 11 losses)

Series Schedule:

• Match number 1. Russia, Khimki, BTsMO — May 5, 7:00 pm
• Match number 2. Russia, Khimki, BTsMO — May 7, 23:00
• Match number 3. Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Bicycle Track — May 10, 19:30
• * Match number 4. Kazakhstan, Nur-Sultan, Saryarka Bicycle Track — May 12 — 15:00
• * Match number 5. Russia, Khimki, BTsMO — May 15, 23:00

 

Three questions for the series:

Will “Astana” have enough strength for the series?

«Astana» had an excellent selection in the 2018 off-season. All newcomers fit into the composition and bring great benefits. The problem is their limited number: there are 8 basketball players in active rotation (10 minutes or more) of the Kazakhstan club. There are 14 such players in BC “Khimki’’.

Basketball players from Nur-Sultan in the course of matches often have to save themselves from busting fouls, and also demonstrate the wonders of endurance in the endings. Will Astana cope with these tasks in a tight schedule of a series of playoffs against a team that possesses one of the best rebounds of players in the League?

Will we see the best version of Anthony Clemmons?

Clemmons at the start of the regular season proved to be the leader of BC «Astana». He became a regular of the top five of the week and was recognized as the MVP of the League in December. The defender often took the initiative and did it justifiably, gaining a lot of points and actively distributing assists. In the first 18 matches of the season, Clemmons scored an average of 16.8 points and 5.6 assists. The fight against BC “Kalev” on March 11 was the last when Anthony scored more than 10 points per match. In the course of the 7-game segment at the finish of the regular season, the naturalized Kazakhstani player who lost his former aggression gained only 6.1 points on average per game. To compete with the finalist of the last two seasons, “Astana” needs Clemmons, as we saw him in the first half of the season.

Alexey Shved’s factor?

Shved — the most dangerous player in the League.It looks like sometimes only he is able to stop him from total domination. In April, Alexey scored an excellent form: in the last four games, the Russian gained an average of 26.2 points and 5.7 assists. In the decisive matches of the year, the guard plays with even greater desire and can pull out whole matches (against UNICS in the Final Four ”-2018) or even a series (against Zenit in the semifinal of play-off-2017). As part of «Astana» there is no strong defence game specialist who could constantly provide serious resistance to the Khimki’s superstar. After the appearance of Jannis Timma in Khimki, another versatile and strong individual player who just needs to pay attention to, it has become even more difficult to hold back the yellow and blue on the perimeter. Shved has good chances to become the main character of the upcoming quarterfinal confrontation.

We remind you that  Ticketon.kz has already opened the sale of tickets for the «Astana» home match against «Khimki» within the quarter finals of the VTB United League, which will be held on Friday May 10 at the Saryarka track arena according to the capital time.

Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and results of matches are published in the section Tournaments.

The first match of the quarterfinal series of the VTB United League between Khimki and BC ‘’Astana”’ took place in Moscow, following which the capital team was defeated — 82:59 (24:17, 15:17, 22:13, 21:12).

This series began last, and in three others the first matches were already over: “UNICS ” beat “Kalev”(92:82) at home, CSKA Moscow figured out Nizhny Novgorod (87:50), and BC “Zenit” upset “Lokomotive”(69:78).

In this series, “Khimki” are favourites and were clearly determined to win the first match. It was the hosts who won the toss and in the first offense opened the scoring in the game. Jeffrey Grossell equalized the score first, and after 30 seconds, brought Astana to the front. However, the Kazakh team was not long in the lead, and already in the next possession, the team from Khimki took the lead again. For a while, Astana held close to the opponents, but in the middle of the first quarter they missed 10-0 run by the Khimki. Until the end of the quarter, our team was able to recoup a bit, but eventually lost the first quarter with a score of 24:17. The second period began with mutual mistakes.   Even though the hosts scored points again, the first half of the second quarter was clearly going the way our coaching staff planed. To the equator of the period, only 2 points remained from the 10-point deficit, but, unfortunately, the Kazakhs failed to catch up with their rivals, and those in turn were able to stop our breakthrough. The game before the fifteen-minute break was tough and hard, and as a result, Astana won the second period — 15:17, but lost the first half of the match — 39:34.

In the third quarter, the capital team began to experience difficulties, and they allowed rivals to increase the lead. In less than 2 minutes, the advantage of the Khimki team exceeded the mark of 10 points and continued to increase, but Astana did not give up and tried to catch up all possible ways. BC “Khimki”, led by Alexei Shved, confidently played their game and, although not as fast as they would like, but increased their handicap, which by the end of the third quarter reached 16 points — 61:47. Confidence in the game from the host club increased significantly, and BC “Astana”, on the contrary, slipped a little.  Emil Rajkovic’s players continued to do everything possible and impossible and did not give up. Nevertheless, the players of “Khimki” fully controlled the situation, who not without difficulty, but still got to the figure of +20. They had to maintain their advantage for another 5 minutes, and their goal for today has been achieved, while the chances of a victory for the Kazakhstan team have almost completely disappeared. And so that our squad would not do, nothing saved them from defeat today. As a result, “Khimki” won the first game of the series with a score of 82:59.

“Astana” defended very well, and it was noticeable that majority of “Khimki” possessions  were rather difficult, especially in the first half of the game. Our team did miss quite a lot of fast break opportunities. Also on the hand of the Kazakh team played the leaders of “Khimki”, who clearly could not find his game in the first half. But after the big break, “His Majesty” — Alexei Shved began to justify his prize “The best scorer of the league season 2018/2019”, which he received right before the match. The players of BC “Astana”, no matter how hard they tried, could not stop Alexey, who became the main “creator” of victory for his team.
 
 The most productive:

• BC “Khimki”: Aleksey Shved (27 + 5 assists), Malcolm Thomas (10 + 8 rebounds), Andrey Zubkov (7 + 7 rebounds)
• BC “Astana”: Jeffrey Grossell (11 + 7 rebounds), Anthony Clemmons (10), Kenneth Horton (6 + 7 rebounds)

The head coach of «Astana» — Emil Rajkovich:
- Congratulations to BC “Khimki”, today they were the best team. They took advantage of deep rotation and maintained a high level of intensity throughout the match. In the second half, we did not have same energy level, we “ran out of gas”, and in the end BC “Khimki” was led in the 1-0 series.
 
The head coach of «Khimki» — Rimas Kurtinaitis:
- Glad to end up with a victory. At the beginning of the match it was not easy, as there was still some kind of excitement, but we quickly coped with it. They played well and, first of all, I would like to note the defence. Probably the first time in the season we played so well in defence and did not let the opponent score more than 60 points. In a word, they fought, won the selection and showed what they needed. We look forward to the next match.

The next match of the series will take place on Tuesday — May 7, also on Khimki’s home site, starting at 23:00 Nur-Sultan. We remind you that  Ticketon.kz has already opened the sale of tickets for the «Astana» home match against «Khimki» within the quarter finals of the VTB United League, which will be held on Friday May 10 at the Saryarka track arena according to the capital time.

Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and results of matches are published in the section Tournaments.