Two Russian powerhouses clash in the Russian capital on Tuesday when CSKA Moscow hosts Zenit St Petersburg.

The Take: CSKA Moscow vs. Zenit St Petersburg

CSKA (1-1) comes off a big road win at defending champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul in which Toko Shengelia and Johannes Voigtmann combined for 40 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

Game Facts: UNICS Kazan vs. FC Bayern Munich

### UNICS Kazan

**Roster**
O.J Mayo and Artem Komolov are in line to make their respective EuroLeague debuts.

**Streaks**
Mario Hezonja has scored at least 12 points in nine of his last 10 games.
Hezonja has made at least 1 three-pointer in nine of his last 10 games.

**Rankings**
Viacheslav Zaitcev ranked sixth last season with 1.32 steals per game and Lorenzo Brown was eighth with 1.30 per game.

**Records/Milestones**
Andrey Vorontsevich is in 14th place all-time with 276 games played in the competition. He needs to appear in 2 more games to catch Dimitris Diamantidis for 13th place.

### FC Bayern Munich

**Roster**
Gavin Schilling made his EuroLeague debut in Round 2.
Joshua Obiesie, Andreas Obst, Christian Skladanowski, Sebastian Hartmann and Aleksa Vucetic are all set to make their respective EuroLeague debuts.
Vladimir Lucic, Leon Radosevic and Nihad Dedovic did not play in the first two games.

**Streaks**
Vladimir Lucic has posted double-digit PIRs in 15 of his last 16 games.
Lucic has made at least 1 three-pointer in each of his last 13 games.
DeShaun Thomas has scored in double figures in four of his last five games dating back to March 2020.

**Rankings**
Vladimir Lucic ranked seventh last season in average PIR with 17.8 per game.
Nick Weiler-Babb ranked ninth last season with 1.2 steals per game.

**Records/Milestones**
Othello Hunter ranks fifth all-time with 486 offensive rebounds. Ante Tomic is fourth with 520.
Hunter ranks 13th all-time with 1,143 rebounds. David Andersen is 12th with 1,144.
Hunter needs 10 blocks to reach 100 for his career.
Zan Mark Sisko ranks second all-time with a 2.86-to-1 career assist-to-turnover ratio.
Leon Radosevic needs 6 steals to reach 100 for his career.

UNICS Kazan v FC Bayern Munich (2021-10-12T16:00:00.000Z)

Here are some interesting notes about the duel.

Game Notes: UNICS Kazan vs. FC Bayern Munich

· This is the first-ever EuroLeague meeting between these two teams.

· The two teams played in the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals in the 2017-18 season. Bayern won the best-of-three series in which the home team won each game.

· Bayern head coach Andrea Trinchieri returns to Kazan where he coached UNICS in the 2013-14 season. He won the Russian Cup with the team, guided it to the EuroCup Finals, and was named EuroCup Coach of the Year that season.

· Bayern forward Vladimir Lucic played under current UNICS coach Velimir Perasovic for a season and a half, from 2013 to 2015, at Valencia Basket.

· Bayern big man Leon Radosevic was still a teenager when he made his EuroLeague debut with Cibona Zagreb. It was Coach Perasovic who made him a full-time starter in the 2009-10 season.

· Bayern swingman Darrun Hilliard made his EuroLeague debut with Baskonia in the 2018-19 season where he played under Coach Perasovic.

· Bayern forward DeShaun Thomas and his UNICS counterpart Mario Hezonja were teammates at FC Barcelona during the 2014-15 season.

· UNICS center Tonye Jekiri posted his career-high with 4 steals playing for LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne against Bayern in February 2020. He dished a career-best 5 assists with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz against Bayern in March 2021.

· UNICS guard Evgeny Valiev grabbed a career-high 6 rebounds playing for Khimki Moscow Region against Bayern in January of last season.

· UNICS guard Viatcheslav Zaitcev collected a career-best 4 steals playing for Khimki Moscow Region against Bayern last season.

Bayern has played well in the paint this season, making 58.2% of its two-point shots and outrebounding opponents by 1.5 boards per game. UNICS is a team primed to do some damage from downtown.

Keys to victory: UNICS Kazan vs. FC Bayern Munich

Bayern has played well in the paint this season, making 58.2% of its two-point shots and outrebounding opponents by 1.5 boards per game. UNICS has made only 47.7% of its twos and been outrebounded by 6 per game. If Othello Hunter, Augustine Rubit and DeShaun Thomas make sure Coach Andrea Trinchieri's men control the paint in Kazan, it would be a major boost for the visitors.

UNICS is a team primed to do some damage from downtown with the likes of Isaiah Canaan, Marco Spissu, Mario Hezonja, Andrey Vorontsevich and OJ Mayo – the last of whom could debut this week. However, so far UNICS, the shots have not fallen. UNICS is 15 for 46 (32.6%) on threes through two games. If UNICS heats up on Tuesday, it could make all the difference.

Not only were swingmen Mario Hezonja and Darrun Hilliard their respective teams' leading scorers in Round 2, but the two will go head-to-head in Round 3. Both are top-level scorers with similar skills.

Marquee matchup: Mario Hezonja vs. Darrun Hilliard

Hezonja contributes more in rebounding than his counterpart with 4.5 per game this season, while Hilliard has chipped in 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals – plus 3.5 turnovers – per game. Each also tends to draw a lot of fouls due to their attacking nature and if either gets the other in early foul trouble, it could have a significant impact on the outcome. While this will be the first time the two square off, Hezonja scored 14 for Panathinaikos OPAP Athens against Bayern last season. Hilliard has yet to face UNICS.

UNICS dropped to 0-2 on Friday when it lost in overtime to AS Monaco. Mario Hezonja paced the UNICS attack with 17 points and leads the team with 15.5 points per game this season. Coach Perasovic's side could be even stronger this week if OJ Mayo makes his debut.

Bayern lost its home opener against FC Barcelona on Thursday despite 18 points from Darrun Hilliard. DeShaun Thomas added 14 and is the team's top scorer on the season with 14.5 points per game. The only previous meeting between these teams was in the 2018 EuroCup Quarterfinals, when Bayern prevailed in the best-of-three series.

One team will get its first win of the season on Tuesday when UNICS Kazan hosts FC Bayern Munich.

The Take: UNICS Kazan vs. FC Bayern Munich

### High-Gravity Matchups
In a rematch of last spring's semifinal opener at the Final Four, CSKA Moscow earned a hard-fought 100-96 victory over reigning champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul on the road in Sinan Erdem Sports Hall to avenge their 89-86 loss five months ago in Cologne. The difference for CSKA was apparent in what wound up being an equally competitive contest. Scoring around 1.05 points per possession in half-court situations in both games, CSKA tallied 15 points over 8 transition possessions on Friday compared to just 7 points over 4 such possessions back in May. Doing a better job turning defense into offense, CSKA's opportunism switching ends off steals and creating advantages off rebounds ultimately tipped the scales in its favor to stave off a comeback effort sparked by Vasilije Micic's 32 points and 7-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc for Efes.

### Barcelona's fearsome fivesome
While Efes fell to 0-2 with that loss, the champions' resume from last season offers plenty of reasons not to panic. They set the EuroLeague standard on the offensive end and came around defensively in the second half of the season to close out one of the most competitive seasons in league history as the titleholders. While Efes has stumbled early, last season's runner-up FC Barcelona has found itself on the opposite end of the spectrum. Finishing the 2020-21 regular season with the best record and top point differential, Barca has taken a head-start on achieving both feats again this year, thanks in large part to a five-man unit that is establishing itself as the league's one watch through two rounds.

Last year, the four-man unit of Nick Calathes, Cory Higgins, Pierre Oriola and Alex Abrines were on the floor for only 12% of Barcelona's possessions but produced a +79-point differential over the course of the season. That was a higher mark than 12 entire teams and one of the top such point differentials for one unit in recent history. It is still too early to buy into any surefire trends this season, but as the graphic above illustrates, the five-man group of Calathes, Higgins, Nigel Hayes-Davis, Nikola Mirotic and Brandon Davies is already a +21 through two games.

Given the continuity between these groups – indeed, Mirotic and Davies filled a lot of the wildcard minutes as the fifth player in last year's unit – it is not particularly surprising that Barcelona has been able to lean on a familiar recipe for success. However, with this group being on the floor for 27% of all Barca's possessions so far, it is worth wondering if this lineup's early dominance and heavy usage are a sign of things to come for Sarunas Jasikevicius's club and how he will adjust his rotation when Alex Abrines returns from injury.

### Looking ahead to Round 3
Conveniently, Barcelona will host the team currently sitting second in the standings, Olympiacos Piraeus, in Round 3. Allowing opponents to score just 0.72 points per possession, top-ranked among all teams through two rounds, Olympiacos has relied on a strong ability to get stops in taking home wins against Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Real Madrid. Going on the road now against Barcelona's lineup of doom, the Olympiacos defense will be put to the test again. It will be particularly interesting to see how Greek powerhouse approaches guarding Nikola Mirotic, who is coming off one of the most efficient individual offensive seasons in EuroLeague history and has scored an absurd 33 points over only 16 possessions to start the 2021-22 campaign.

It only took only two rounds for a marquee matchup to deliver a thriller and for one five-man lineup to emerge as a difference-maker.

Stats Review: Barca's lineup of doom

Panathinaikos OPAP Athens added another weapon to its backcourt on Sunday by signing Yogi Ferrell for the remainder of the season. 

Greens ink playmaker Ferrell

Panathinaikos OPAP Athens added another weapon to its backcourt on Sunday by signing Yogi Ferrell for the remainder of the season. Ferrell (1.83 meters, 28 years old) has spent the past five seasons in the NBA, where he played for Brooklyn, Dallas, Cleveland, Sacramento and Los Angeles Clippers. For his career he averaged 7.7 points and 2.3 assists in 259 games. Ferrell also spent time in the G-League with Long Island and Salt Lake City. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 2017. Ferrell will make his European basketball debut with Panathinaikos.



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Is Sunday a good day to announce a point guard?🤔<br><br>Sure, why not?<br><br>Welcome <a href="https://twitter.com/YogiFerrell11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@YogiFerrell11</a> ☘<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/paobc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#paobc</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/panathinaikosbcopap?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#panathinaikosbcopap</a> <a href="https://t.co/OepS03BJDP">pic.twitter.com/OepS03BJDP</a></p>&mdash; Panathinaikos BC (@paobcgr) <a href="https://twitter.com/paobcgr/status/1447147543121510400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 10, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

So what does this 37 represent? The combined number of points that Chris Jones and Elie Okobo have scored in both of the team’s wins.

A week after Okobo poured in 23 points and Jones had 14 in an opening night victory over Zalgiris Kaunas in Round 1, on Friday night it was Jones's turn to lead the scoring with 24 points while Okobo pitched in 13 points in ASVEL’s 67-71 road victory over ALBA Berlin.

"Elie Okobo and Chris Jones are the top two choices to run the backcourt this year in ASVEL. I have full confidence in them," Parker said after the Zalgiris game.

Both guards talked after that game about the bond that is forming between them, and it showed again in Round 2 in the German capital. They both know how to take games over for significant stretches, demonstrated when Okobo scored 6 straight points in a big 0-13 run which turned ALBA’s 24-17 lead into a 24-30 ASVEL advantage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Chris Jones from way downtown with the dagger three 💦🗡️<a href="https://twitter.com/albaberlin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@albaberlin</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/7DAYSMagicMoment?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#7DAYSMagicMoment</a> <a href="https://t.co/ag2V9rnu7S">pic.twitter.com/ag2V9rnu7S</a></p>&mdash; Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroLeague/status/1446566017900154887?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 8, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

And it was Jones who shined in the fourth quarter. His two layups pushed the lead out to 43-57 early in the final frame. ALBA tried to come back and twice got the deficit to 7 points, only for Jones to drain three-pointers each time. The host still refused to give up and the gap was down to 6 points with just more than 2 minutes left when Jones knocked down another long three-pointer. And he then finished off the game for good with 2 free throws with 8.8 seconds remaining.

"We believe in each other. We have confidence. We’re trying to build something right now," said Jones after the road win.

To this point, ASVEL’s guards have built a pretty strong connection which is showing to be the key to the team’s undefeated start. While both can light up the scoreboard in bunches, it might be a big ask for Jones and Okobo to combine for 37 points each game. But it has worked out that way so far. Next up? No less than reigning champion and so far winless Anadolu Efes Istanbul, at home on Tuesday.

The number 37 has been a special one for LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne so far this season. It signifies a major new trust that head coach TJ Parker has quickly developed, and has helped the French club surge to a 2-0 record to start the season.

Chris Jones and Elie Okobo's special 37 connection

ALBA Berlin v LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (2021-10-08T18:00:00.000Z)