On Sunday, February 2, in the first away match of the second round of the VTB United League regular season, the team of «Astana» Presidential Basketball Club will meet with Belarusian dragons «Tsmoki-Minsk».
“Tsmoki-Minsk” is a Belarusian professional men's basketball club from the city of Minsk, founded in 2006. This season, in addition to playing in the VTB United League and the Championship of Belarus, they are participating in the European Cup.
Achievements:
- Champion of Belarus 2009−2019
- Winner of the Cup of Belarus 2010−2018
“Tsmoki Minsk” in the first game with our team this season, which was held in Nur-Sultan on November 9, 2019, very much grated everyone’s nerves. However, then our team was able to snatch victory, defeating rivals with a score of 91:89. Since then, “Tsmoki” has held another 10 games within the VTB United League. After that game with “Astana”, the Minsk team went home, where they missed the victory in the match with “Yenisei”, having lost 3 points. Then the “dragons” had a very interesting, but controversial away series of 4 games. At first, they almost made a sensation, losing only 4 points to «Khimki», then there was their first victory of the season, which they won in Tallinn, against the local “Kalev”. After Estonia, they went to Poland, where they lost to the local «Zielona Gora» team only in overtime, and the next match, which took place in Perm, against the local «Parma» ended in a victory for the Belarusians. After that, the “dragons” returned home, where CSKA became their first rival. “CSKA” with great difficulty won that game by only 3 points. Although “Zenit”, who arrived in Minsk, outplayed rivals in all respects, with a margin of 20 points. And in the next home match, our future rivals gained their third victory of the season by beating «Avtodor». Then there was an away game with «Lokomotiv», which they lost by 8 points, and before the match with «Astana», there was a -14 defeat in the home game with «Khimki».
Tournament position: “Tsmoki Minsk” currently occupies the last 13th line of the tournament table and it will be extremely difficult for them to return for the fight for the playoff zone, but as they say “the wounded beast is the most dangerous”. “Astana” is now in fifth place, but the next two games, although they will be held in Nur-Sultan, it is worth understanding that “Khimki” and CSKA will come to visit us, so in any case, you need to stock up victory points in Belarus.
Changes in the roster: American forward Jamar Abrams, who, although he did not play against «Astana» in Nur Sultan
on November 9, officially left the team
on November 27. Also, a new name of Belarusian Daniil Borisevich has appeared in the team, but the young guard has not yet taken part in any match.
Leaders of rivals: the most effective member of the Belarusian team this season is Belarusian forward Maxim Salash. But the most points on the average per game is gained by American guard Dominez Barnett. Also, among the leaders of the team, it is worth noting the American Robert Lowry, the Serb Branko Mirkovic and the Frenchman Alexandre Gavrilovic. It was these players, along with Belarusian forward Vitaliy Lyutych, who were the best players of the «Tsmoki Minsk» team in the last game. Well, besides these players, one should note the most experienced Belarusians: center Vladimir Veremeenko and forward Alexei Trostinetsky.
The match will take place
on Sunday, February 2 in Minsk at the Falcon Club arena,
starting at 20:45 Nur-Sultan time. Online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the
Match Center section.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
