Astana are heading to Almaty for their final road series of the Kazakhstan National League regular season. The capital side will face Almaty Legion on 21 and 22 March, with both games starting off at 18:00 at the Champ1on Sports Complex.
This is Astana’s last away stop of the regular season. From here, it’s home games only — and then the end of the championship.
There’s extra edge to this matchup as well. For Astana, it’s a chance to finish the road portion of the season on a strong note, but also an opportunity to answer for the previous series. In their most recent head-to-head meetings on home court, Astana dropped both games to Legion (77–86, 69–72). That came during a difficult stretch for the team following the trip to Aktau, where Astana lost to Caspiy and struggled to find their rhythm straight away.
Since then, the response has been clear. In the next series, Astana looked far more like themselves, taking two convincing wins over Tobol (88–73, 101–48) — an important step towards stabilising their form.
The rivalry has plenty of history. The teams have met 36 times, with Astana winning 29 of those matchups. Astana’s biggest win in the series came on 26 March 2015 (128–59), and the most recent meeting ended 106–73 in Astana’s favour.
E.J. Day remains the key figure in Astana’s offence. Even after missing several games through suspension, he still leads the team in both scoring and assists, averaging 15.3 points and 6 assists per game. On the boards, Robert Pan has been the team’s most reliable rebounder at 6 per game.
For Almaty Legion, the standout is Elijah Hardy, who has been doing a bit of everything — averaging 18.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 5.9 assists.
With the playoffs getting closer, these final away games carry real weight. Astana will be looking to lock in their spot near the top of the table and head into the postseason in the best possible shape.
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