Tomorrow, on March 11, the capital basketball club will host a home match in the regular season of the VTB United League against «Khimki» from Moscow.
«Khimki» — is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the Moscow region, founded in 1997. In addition to participating in the United League VTB, it also plays in the Euroleague.
Achievements:
- The silver prize-winner of the championship of Russia 2006, 2008-2013, 2015
- Bronze medalist of the Russian Championship 2007
- Winner of the Russian Cup 2008
- Champion of the VTB United League 2010/2011
- Silver medalist of the VTB United League 2014/2015
- Finalist of the European Cup ULEB 2008/2009
- Finalist of the European Cup 2005/2006
- Finalist of the Final Four of the FIBA Euroleague 2004/2005
- Finalist of the «Final Four» of VTB United League 2009/2010
- Winner of the European Cup 2011/2012, 2014/2015
Chronicle of past games:
«Khimki» participates in the VTB United League since 2009. The Kazakhstan club met on the court with the Russian team for 13 times, and «Astana» managed to beat the titled opponent three times. This season, «Astana» has already played with «Khimki» in the arena of Khimki, wherein in a tense struggle «Astana' lost with a minimum score of 72:71.
Current situation:
This season, 'Khimki» has changed the coach, the Greek specialist Georgios Bartsokas took the place of Dusko Ivanovich. The Russian defender Alex Shved leads the team and brings the team 22 points on average per game.We should also mention heavies of the foreign players, who also occupy the leading positions in the League statistical data.
Standings:
Basketball club «Khimki» takes the 5th place in the standings of the VTB League with the result of 9 wins and 7 defeats. »Astana» occupies the 8th line with the result of 5 wins and10 defeats.
Commentary of the acting head coach of BC «Astana», Mikhail Karpenko:
- We have a rather difficult match ahead of us. «Khimki» is undoubtedly one of the leaders of the VTB League. It is a very balanced team, athletic, with a good choice of performers and a deep bench. It is quite unusual for «Khimki» to be on the 5th place, which they occupy in the VTB League now, they lag behind 3 wins for the 4 place. That is why every match in the League is important for «Khimki» now in order to get to the top four in the regular season and for having the advantage for to hold playoff games on its court. Unequivocally, «Khimki» will focus on this match no less than we do, because we are fighting for getting into the playoffs. In addition, «Khimki» «has unsuccessfully played the last game in the Euroleague, losing the home team to «Milan,» so I think that they will be more than motivated for this game. Naturally, they are coming with only one desire to win. As for the match itself, there is an outstanding player Alexei Shved who is now the best defender of the VTB League and the best Euroleague shooting guard, practically no team managed to stop him. In any case, regardless of the result, Sved scores 20 points in each game and our task is to try to force him to attack from uncomfortable positions. Of course, do not forget to pay attention to other players, because they are equally experienced and aggressive, primarily James Anderson, Charles Jenkins, Stefan Markovich and Anthony Gill, good centers Malcolm Thomas and Thomas Robinson. In general, we must be extremely careful and extremely aggressive in defense with each rival player on the court. There are always chances for victory, everything will depend on how much we will be disciplined, how confident we will be and how much we can impose the fight on «Khimki» from the first minutes of the match.
Where, when, at what time?
Arena: Republican cycle track «Saryarka»
Time: 15.00 by the time of Astana
Broadcast: VTB United League website, BC «Astana» website, «QazSport» TV channel
