On Friday, May 10, the home match of the Presidential Basketball Club «Astana» against «Khimki» will be held as a part of the playoff quarterfinal series of the VTB United League.
! — ATTENTION: Dear fans, everyone who has already purchased tickets, please note that the start time of the match was moved from 19:30 to 17:00, Nur-Sultan time. Purchased tickets are valid. The time has been changed for reasons that are beyond the club control! Thank you for understanding.
In the first match of the series, which took place in Khimki, the capital team was defeated — 82:59 (24:17, 15:17, 22:13, 21:12). Before the home game with Khimki team, Emil Raikovic’s players will be holding the second match on the rival’s court, which will be held tomorrow — May 7, beginning at 23:00, Nur-Sultan time.
The second game will certainly be very tense for «Astana». Our players put in a lot of physical and psychological strength in the first match, and they haven't had much time to recover. “Khimki” does not only have the advantage of a home court but so also undoubtedly the one to have drive after the first victory. But in any case, the team will be determined to fight and demonstrate a good game. The result of the second game will reflect on the third game, which will be held Nur-Sultan on May 10. In case of victory on May 7, “Astana” will even the score in the series and will feel quite comfortable at home, and in case of defeat, the home game on May 10 becomes the last chance to catch on the semi-final. Everything you need to know about the contest of «Astana» and «Khimki» in the quarterfinal has been published in the announcements on our website.
We remind you that you have a unique opportunity to win a set of the game uniform of your favorite team, see the conditions for participation in the draw.
We are waiting for all our fans this Friday in the stands of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka» (Kabanbay Batyr Ave. 42), the start of the match is at 17:00, Nur-Sultan time. Tickets for the match can be purchased on the website Ticketon.kz. Live broadcast of the match will be available on the main page of our site and in the Match Center section.
Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and results of matches are published in the section Tournaments.
In Nur-Sultan, the third match of the VTB United League playoff quarterfinals series between «Astana» and «Khimki» has ended. Despite the support of the home stands, «Astana» lost to «Khimki» and completed their performance this season — 81:88 (25:24, 21:26, 14:17, 19:21).
Before this game, the Moscow team won two matches and it was quite likely that this match could be the final in the series. In other playoff series, «CSKA» beat «Nizhny Novgorod» three times, and «UNICS» defeated «Kalev» in three games. But in the third game of “Locomotive” — “Zenith” is not all clear, there is a score of 2: 1, and tomorrow, May 11, in St. Petersburg the fourth game will take place, which can be final.
As for our series; “Astana” approached the home match, losing 0: 2, and this game was the last chance to catch on. Naturally, this was a super motivation for players who had given it their all. It had become a pleasant surprise that before this game, the head coach of the Kazakhstani team, Emil Raikovic, received the VTB United League prize as the best coach of the season 2018/2019, which could not but affect the game of our team from a positive point of view. But our rivals did not intend to drag on the series to the fourth match, and their attitude was also solely to win.
“Astana” opened the score with the three-pointer by Michael Jenkins. “Astana” started the first minutes of the game particularly well, and almost all the attacks hit home. On the other hand, the Moscow team had pretty big problems at the start, and Rimas Kurtinaitis had to take a timeout in the fourth minute with his team 9 points behind. But the minute break did not really benefit our rivals. Maybe they noticeably added to the pressure, but «Astana» kept its advantage and outplayed opponents by 11 points a couple of minutes before the end of the quarter. Nevertheless, Khimchane managed to use the last two minutes to the maximum and could change the course of the game in their favor and began to actively recoup. They did not catch up with the hosts, but as a result in the first 10 minutes, they lost only 1 point — 25:24. In the second quarter, “Khimki” went on actively pressuring throughout the court, but «Astana» also struggled to the maximum in a tough game imposed by the Moscow team. And yet, after three and a half minutes of the second period, «Khimki» were able to forge into the lead in this match. Intensive struggle on the court continued, the Kazakh team managed to come forward again, but they could not hold the leading role for a long time. On the flip side, “Khimki” did not manage to somehow develop their success. In the last seconds of the first half, Anthony Clemmons reduced the gap for «Astana» to a minimum of 48:50.
The third quarter started less intensively than the previous two, and the pace of the game dropped noticeably for both teams. It is also worth noting that there were a lot of technical hitches, which did not add to the speed of the game. The performance in the third quarter was far from great. Nevertheless, the game pace gradually escalated again, and the struggle again began to go on fiercely. The situation at the court “exploded” when Alexander Zhigulin's sharp three-pointer brought his team ahead. Our team failed to seize the game and lost the third quarter, but their loss amounted to only three points, as a result, after three-quarters of “Khimki” were leading by only 5 points — 62:67. This saved all the intrigue in the match to the fourth quarter. The final period started from an abundance of fouls from «Khimki» but, unfortunately, not all attempts of our players from the free-throw line were accurate, which allowed “Khimki” to maintain its advantage. The game became very cautious, as neither team wanted to make a fatal mistake. “Astana” missed a lot of throws, which led to extended the gap to more than 10 points, and Emil Rajkovic interrupted the success of «Khimki» by a timeout. The Kazakhstan team again added the intrigue by reducing the backlog to 5 points, and the ending of the game became extremely tense. The coaches had once again used their time-outs, but “Khimki” grabbed their advantage and were able to win in this uneasy match with a score of 81:88.
In contrast to their games in the Moscow region, today field goal percentage for «Astana» was significantly higher, especially in comparison to the second game, particularly in the first half — 61%. But what they lost the low-post game in the first half. “Khimki” beat “Astana” significantly in rebounds very noticeably, which gave our opponents the opportunity for second-chance points. For comparison, “Khimki” scored 12 second-chance points in the first half, against 0 for “Astana” and this is perhaps the main reason for losing in the first half. The second half was held in a more tense fight and the teams made a lot of mistakes. In the fourth quarter, “Khimki” violated the rules a lot, and the players of “Astana” did not dispose of their chances from the free-throw line in the most successful way. In general, “Astana” left a very good impression of the game, and this match became very difficult for our rivals. What caught my eye was that all the players and the coaching staff of the Kazakhstani club fought to the very end and put a huge amount of energy into this game.
The most productive:
The head coach of «Astana» — Emil Raykovic:
- Today we showed a good game. We had a chance to win the match, but still “Khimki” deserved their victory. I am very proud of my players, they made this season the most successful in the history of the club. I hope next year «Astana» will have more basketball fans.
The head coach of «Khimki» — Rimas Kurtinaitis:
- I am very happy to reach the semi-finals. We knew that even after two confident home victories it would not be easy for us as «Astana» had no right to make mistakes. I want to pay tribute to the players and the coaching staff of rivals; this series was not easy. I also want to note the good defense of our team both in home and away games.
Thus, the capital team completed its performance in the current season of the VTB United League. We thank all the fans for their support and we are waiting for you at the matches of the National League playoff series.
Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and results of matches are published in the section Tournaments.
