CSKA vs. Gescrap Bilbao: 98-71 (+27)
Jonas Kazlauskas, CSKA head coach:
In the end, I am glad with the way we played. I can’t say that we played bad in the first half. The opponents were good, they were scoring on some tough shots, they were moving fast, they’ve made very tough screens. I told to the players that Bilbao is a strong, experienced team, which deserved to be in the Euroleague top 8. We found our mutual understanding in the third period, especially on defense. And our offense was ignited by defense. I think the third quarter decided the outcome. At the same time we should not relax. The difference is not important. You can rest your players in this kind of situations, you can keep your secrets – I think that’s what the opponent coach did. We have our secrets and I don’t want to say in details what I did not like about the game. Everyone remembers last year series of Olympiacos and Montepaschi, where Italians won the series after losing the Game 1 by almost 50 points. We will continue our preparations tomorrow, we will watch the video and practice.
Alexey Shved, CSKA guard:
The first half was difficult, but after it we started to go away, the difference grew to 20, 30 points, so we had a chance to relax in the end. The third quarter was close to perfect. But in the first and second we also played good, but we made some mistakes on defense, the opponents scored several tough shots, shooting over the hands from 8 meters, they punished us with fast breaks.
