AVTODOR SARATOV (RUSSIA)

Founded in 1960
Team colors: black and white
Honors: 2nd Place in Russian Championship (1994, 1997, 1998, 1999), 3rd Place in Russian Championship (1996), Eurocup FIBA semifinalist (1998), Superleague A Champion (1997, 1998), Superleague B Champion (2009), Superleague Champion (2014), 3rd Place in Superleague (2013)
Arena: Sport Palace Kristall (capacity – 5500)
Head coach: Gordie Herbert
President: Vladimir Rodionov
Official website: avtodor.ru

Where to watch

LIVE: Match! Strana (17:55, replay at 00:50), matchtv.ru, VTB United League website
Text online: VTB United League website

GAME NOTES

Sergey Monia started his pro career in Avtodor Saratov, where he played from 2000 to 2002.

Sergey Karasev played with Drew Gordon in Zenit St Petersburg in season 2017/2018. Earlier, Gordon played with Shved in Philadelphia 76ers in 2014.

PRE-GAME QUOTES

Rimas Kurtinaitis, Khimki Moscow Region head coach:

“Avtodor plays well, runs in fastbreaks, 90% of their attacks are completed in the tenth second. I know their coach Herbert, who worked in Germany for a long time. He prefers fast American-style basketball. It's not going to be easy because we are just getting to our best game after all the injuries and viruses, we need to get in shape. In the game against Maccabi, this was not possible, although the game itself was not bad, it just did not work out to finish the job. At the moment, everything is more or less normal, but there are players in the squad who have missed a month or more. Now we are doing full practices, we can play five-on-five, which we could not afford before”.