| In the Russian Championship among men's teams, three of the four participants in the semi-final series have been determined - Kazan UNICS, Ural Great (Perm) and the capital's Dynamo. In another pair of the first round of the playoffs, the winner will most likely be known today or, at the very least, tomorrow. It is unlikely that Lokomotiv from Rostov-on-Don, which previously lost twice to CSKA away, will be able to resist the army team at home.
Although, of course, head coach Dusan Ivkovic’s players are resuming the domestic championship games in far from the best mood. Hopes for a successful performance by CSKA in the Final Four of the ULEB Euroleague in Tel Aviv turned out to be groundless. On the first day of the tournament, the “red-blues” lost to the hosts - 85:93, although during the meeting they beat “Maccabi” by up to 11 points. The other semi-final, between the Italian “Skipper” and “Siena”, took place in an even more stubborn battle and ended with the victory of the basketball players from Bologna in overtime - 103:102. However, the match between Maccabi and CSKA was called an early confrontation for the title for a reason. In the decisive match, “Skipper” was unable to provide any resistance to the Israeli club and was defeated with a record difference of 44 points – 118:74. The Muscovites were content with the final third place, defeating Siena - 97:94.
In the Russian championship, the problem of reaching the strongest quartet was most easily solved by UNICS. Without much effort, the Volga team won against Arsenal for the third time - 103:89. The remaining two series were much more interesting, and both ended in Moscow on the same day. It is noteworthy that before the May holidays, the chairman of the RBF referee committee, Mikhail Lokshin, resigned, which Khimki had long sought, whose leaders in this matter found support in this matter from their colleagues from the UMMC women's team (Ekaterinburg). However, the “sacrifice” of the RBF did not change anything in the fate of the Moscow Region club. Having lost the series with Dynamo Moscow, 0:2, the Khimki team hoped to win back on the USC CSKA floor, but the judges did not have any more sympathy for the students of Khimki coach Sergei Yelevich. Quite the contrary... After the nominal hosts managed to reduce a decent gap, at the end of the meeting the referees blew several whistles clearly in favor of the “blue and white”. It is unlikely that such victories can bring true joy to Dynamo fans. The Muscovites frankly failed in the fourth period, squandering 15 points of advantage, and only bad luck in a number of episodes prevented Khimki from extending the series for at least one more match - 88:90.
The level of our championship is eloquently demonstrated by the very stubborn nature of the rivalry between Ural Great, considered one of the giants of Russian basketball, and the debutant of the Super League, Dynamo near Moscow. Newcomers from high society entered the elite on a commercial basis, having paid an increased participation fee, and during the course of the season they were strengthened by two middle-class foreign players - Canadian Greg Newton and American Michael Johnson. Moreover, the latter started the championship in Ural Great and turned out to be superfluous in the Perm club. This ordinary selection move by Dynamo was quite enough to play almost on an equal footing with the Perm team throughout the entire series. In the Urals, the teams shared the points, and in Moscow, the hosts were in the lead in both matches for a long time, eventually losing due to a lack of experience in performing at this level and the qualified actions of the opponents' coach Sergei Belov - 71:83 and 77:84.
From the point of view of a long-term development strategy, Dynamo did not particularly need to get into the top four in their debut year in the super league. The team's maximum goal (sixth place) is quite feasible in the consolation playoffs and leaves more serious peaks untouched for conquering in the next championship. Ilya TRISVIATSKY
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