Zenit vs Lokomotiv Kuban. Preview

This Sunday, October 6, the basketball club Zenit will play their next home game of the regular season against Krasnodar's Lokomotiv-Kuban. Neither team has lost a game yet in this VTB United League campaign, and both intend to continue their winning streaks, securing their position at the top of the table. Soon, we will enjoy some excellent basketball, but now let’s take a closer look at the upcoming game.

Context

During the past off-season, Krasnodar surprised everyone by appointing the club’s president, Andrey Vedischev, as head coach. However, the noise quickly subsided when Loko made their best start in VTB United League history. Like Zenit the Kuban team began the season with four consecutive wins — a record for them. Their game against Astana (127:84) became the most productive match for the red-green team in the history of the VTB United League. Moreover, it was the fifth-highest score in tournament history among all teams.

In transfers Lokomotiv-Kuban also went through significant changes this summer. Replacing Barford, Akoon-Purcell and White new foreign players arrived, gradually becoming team leaders. Newcomers B.J. Johnson (12) and Antonius Cleveland (10.8) are among the top three scorers for the team, while Isaiah Whaley is already the team’s leader in rebounds (7), blocks (1.5) and playing time (20:46).

Connections

Sunday's game will be Alexander Shcherbenev’s first match against his former team, now as a player for St. Petersburg.

Head-to-head

The weekend’s main game is expected to be intense with many individual battles and duels. The rivalry between the blue-whites team and the red-greens in the VTB United League has a total of 32 games. Zenit holds a slight advantage with 17 wins, while Krasnodar has 15 victories. In the Supercup both teams have one victory each.

Quotes

Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual about the game against Loko:

It's a big game. It's one big derby against a team that created very good roster and is one of the biggest candidates to win the trophy. And hopefully, here at home, we are going to continue in the good level that we are playing until now. But these kind of games are crucial for our supporters. We wish to have the arena full of our fans and to enjoy all together one game of these characteristics so we hope to give to our fans our best version and in the meantime all of them to enjoy the game.

Who. Where. When. 

Opponent: Lokomotiv-Kuban

Loaction: CSC Arena, St. Petersburg

Date: October 6, 16:00 (local time)

Broadcast: Match TV, VTB United League website, Okko Sport

Tickets are available on tickets.bc-zenit.com.