Taking the opportunity to build on its recent good form, UNICS Kazan showcased all of the offensive talents that it possesses on Friday when it trounced Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 78-98 on the road. UNICS did so by setting one offensive club record, tying another one, and flirting with a couple more.
When, in mid-October, UNICS lost its Round 4 game at Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul by scoring just 41 points and losing by 39 for its third loss in four games, few could have envisioned what would transpire over the next six weeks.
Don't look now, but UNICS is currently the winner of four games in a row and six of its last seven. And on Friday, head coach Velimir Perasovic's team dropped 98 road points on a host defense that had been allowing a league-low 70.6 per game going into Round 12.
"We scored 15 three-pointers on the road against the best defensive team in the EuroLeague, which is not usual for us," Coach Perasovic noted afterward. "We were the worst team in three-point accuracy in the first seven or eight games."
Isaiah Canaan went 5-for-7 from long range and Mario Hezonja 4-for-7, each scoring 17 points. Dmitrii Uzinskii starred, too, hitting all 3 of his tries from long range to finish with 11 points in 16 minutes. Marco Spissu made 2 of 4 and O.J. Mayo added a three-pointer, too.
Those 15 triples were the most that UNICS has ever scored in a EuroLeague game. The team also tied its all-time mark with 24 assists, a record it had set seven years ago against Real Madrid.
UNICS was also just 2 points shy of tying its single-game scoring mark, and by making 20 of 28 two-point attempts against Zvezda, good for 71.4%, UNICS achieved its second-best mark in EuroLeague play.
"We played unselfishly; we tried to share the ball; and we had a good day in three-point shots," Perasovic said. "I think we were extremely good today."
Coach Perasovic summed it up as the best offensive game his team played in the EuroLeague this season, but it was arguably one of the best offensive performances for UNICS in its 71 EuroLeague games to date.
"The way we played offensively, it gives me the right to say we caused Zvezda to lose, not their bad performance," Perasovic concluded.