By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Still, CSKA Moscow remains the team to beat, leading the standings with a 10-1 record despite the defeat. However, Lokomotiv Kuban with just one less win so far is presented to be their main rival for the top of the regular season.
And that brings us to our MVP of the week.
VTB MVP
Dmitry Kulagin
The fact that a former CSKA Moscow player was the leading scorer of Lokomotiv Kuban added more drama to the whole situation. Kulagin was playing for two years in the “Army Team” and his brother, Mikhail, remains a member of CSKA. Scoring 17 points doesn’t seem that impressive, but the whole context of the game gives him the title for this week.
“The best ever weekend”
Just behind the duo of Lokomotiv Kuban and CSKA Moscow, Unics Kazan also emerges as a contender. With Spaniard Quino Colo playing the most mature basketball of his career, Unics has an 8-1 record after beating Enisey. Greek coach Dimitris Priftis doesn’t like big words, but Unics can’t but aim high at this point and it has all the tool to succeed.
The bottom line is quite simple. While CSKA is the big favorite nothing will be easy for them this year, considering also the fact that VTB will have its first ever final four.
Just read what VTB United League president Sergey Kuschenko said after the game in Moscow between CSKA Moscow and Lokomotiv Kuban: “This was one of the most exciting and intriguing weekends in League history. Look, Zenit had a hard-fought win in Minsk, Khimki lost unexpectedly in Estonia and Loko defeated CSKA. These New Year’s surprises hint at the Final Four’s potential for intrigue”.
And if you think that this was easy for Kuschenko to say, you forgot that he was the general manager who returned CSKA Moscow restore its past glories at the turn of the century. Probably that’s why he added: “To me, it looks like CSKA is running into its traditional January swoon, something that’s happened several years in a row. It’s impossible to play at such a high level forever. This isn’t the first time Lokomotiv-Kuban has traveled to Moscow at the same time when CSKA is slumping a bit”.
The fine
The decision of the owners to impose a fine on Khimki players and coaches has already turned heads around Europe. On the other hand, the fact is that Khimki Moscow Region is losing ground in the league, having just a 6-4 record. The defeat by Kalev Talin was not an easy pill to swallow.
The big question here is if a fine can produce results and that’s a big “if”. The general manager Pavel Astakhov held a meeting with the team and used pretty harsh words. The problem is that he was speaking in Russian and many of the non-Russian members of the team couldn’t understand what exactly he was saying.