On December 16, in the VTB United League match, Minsk residents in Samara against the opponent of the same name will hold the second match of the season. Read more about how things are going for Drazen Anzulovic's wards in the midst of the second round of the “regular season” in our preview.
Season 2022/23
Samara is approaching the match with MINSK on the 9th line of the standings. For the first time, the rivals met back in October at the home ground of MINSK. Then Samara won with a score of 91:78. Now the Volga region has an equal number of wins and losses – 8 each.
Drazen Anzulovic's team turned out to be stronger also in duels with Enisey, MBA, UNICS, PARMA, Pari Nizhny Novgorod and Uralmash. In the last away series, Samara was plagued by a series of defeats: the team lost “Astana, Eniseyand Zenit, and only after returning to the home ground, Anzulovic's wards pleased their fans with a victory over Runa with a score of 93:78.
Justin Roberson is the leader in scoring on average per game for the Russian team – 13.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.3 steals in just over 26 minutes on the floor. James Thompson averages 7.4 rebounds per game in 15 games, adds 10.4 points and 1.2 assists to them.
MINSK defender Grigory Motovilov: Samara is a very well–balanced and high-quality team. We, in turn, managed to recover from the last game, so we will go to show our best basketball, which will allow us to achieve victory.”
The roster of the opponent
Samara (Samara, Russia)
Defenders
4. Nikola Rebic, 01.22.1995, 188 cm, Serbia,
10. Ivan Viktorov, 01.11.1995, 196 cm, Russia,
13. Javonteh Hawkins, 11/13/1993, 196 cm, USA,
23. Mikhail Kulagin, 08/04/1994, 191 cm, Russia,
32. Yuri Umrikhin, 06/28/1999, 190 cm, Russia,
86. Justin Roberson, 08.07.1993, 185 cm, USA.
Forwards
6. Alexander Gudumak, 03.07.1993, 203 cm, Russia,
8. Alexander Razumov, 04/22/1992, 204 cm, Russia,
9. Ilya Platonov, 07.31.1998, 199 cm, Russia,
20. Hayden Dalton , 06.20.1996, 206 cm, USA,
25. Rade Zagorac, 08.12.1995, 206 cm, Serbia,
81. Egor Amosov, 23.01.2008, 201 cm, Russia.
The centers
3. Nikita Zverev, 06.04.1994, 210 cm, Russia,
7. James Thompson, 18.01.1995, 208 cm, USA.
The head coach is Drazen Anzulovic (Croatia).
The game will take place at 15:00 Belarusian time. The broadcast will be available on the website of the VTB United League and Belarus 5 Internet. We are rooting for MINSK!