A direct fight for first place in Group D will take place in Kazan, Russia, where Unics welcomes DKV Joventut on Tuesday night. The two teams have already qualified to the Last 16. Unics will win first place in the group if it beats Joventut or loses by 11 points or less. Joventut must win by at least 12 points to finish first and send Unics to second place. Not only are both teams fighting for a big goal, but the game gives fans the chance to see a scoring battle between two of the best shooting guards in European basketball, Marko Popovic of Unics and Clay Tucker of DKV. Popovic is the fifth top scorer in the competition at 21.2 points per game. Tucker has averaged 32.5 points in his last four Spanish League games. Popovic will get help in veteran scorer Saulius Stombergas, streak shooter Igor Zamanskiy and small forward Victor Zvarykin. Stombergas is ready to test his legendary shooting skills against Uros Tripkovic. Meanwhile, Zvarykin will see playing time against Pere Tomas, who is always full of intensity and energy. Christian Eyenga may be DKV's X-factor because of his unbelievable athleticism and fighting spirit. The point guard battle will be interesting, as Unics relies on Terrell Lyday and Petr Samoylenko, two very experienced players ready to put Mario Fernandez and Kris Valters into trouble. Valters dished 14 assists against Unics in Badalona, tying a Eurocup record - but it wasn't enough for his team to win. Unics has an avdantage around the baskets, as it showed in that game back in early December. Kresimir Loncar and Vladimir Veremeenko offer versatility, experience and very high basketball IQs. Valiantsin Yurchyk has earned valuable playing time in his team's rotation due to his rebounding skills, which will be very useful against Edu Hernandez-Sonseca and Antonio Bueno, Loncar is set to battle against Bueno and Henk Norel. Meanwhile, Veremeenko will test his versatility and shooting range against Luke Bogdanovic. Unics must get its big men involved to generate space for Popovic and Lyday. Joventut must run its offense through Tucker and control the defensive boards to run the break. There will be excitement and passion on display this week in a game that could make a major difference on how the rest of the Eurocup season plays out.
REFEREES: Volodymyr Drabikovskyi, Damir Javor, Rustu Nuran