Lokomotiv Kuban waiting for the first victory in Eurocup vs. Umana Venezia
Lokomotiv Kuban waiting for the first victory in Eurocup vs. Umana Venezia
In the second round of Eurocup, we have another interesting and strong match between Lokomotiv Kuban and Venezia. Both teams lost in the first round, but in the national leagues, Venezia had a slow start. Let’s see some stats on their last games and a quick prediction.
Lokomotiv Kuban strengthened their roster this summer with good players like Will Cummings, Johnny O’Bryant III, Sam Dekker or experienced Mantas Kalnietis. In spite of that, they started the new season with a defeat in the first round of Eurocup against Rytas, 86-92, a game where the starting five played very well, but the bench players scored only 6 points. Last weekend they started the VTB campaign with a victory Tsmoki Minsk, 88-80. In this game the rotation was stronger, scoring more points from the bench and helped the starting five. That’s good news for the team, because they have a long season and many matches, so they need as many players to get in shape and contribute. For this game, they don’t have any absentees.
Venezia started the season poorly with two defeats and one victory in Seria A and a defeat against Partizan at home in the first round of Eurocup, 63-66. Their weakness was the 3-point shooting with only 5 made out of 27 attempts. Both defeats from Seria A game against Bologna’s teams, Fortitudo and Virtus. In the last game against Virtus, they recover from their poor 3-point shooting, but they didn’t have any chance to stop Milos Teodosic who scored 22 points in 21 minutes. For Venezia, nine players played at least 12 minutes, which means they have a decent rotation but not as productive as they want. For this game, they have a full roster available.
For me, Lokomotiv is the main favourite because their starting five looks stronger than Venezia’s. But, it’s important to see the bench players duel where Venezia can recoup some points because it seems that they have better players from the bench, or at least they have larger rotation.
Photo: lokobasket.com
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
