Just one day left till the army men meet one of the teams which defeated CSKA this season. Red-blues went to Kaunas again to face Zalgiris – this time in the Euroleague Top 16 game.
The celebratory atmosphere of the VTB League game which featured the legends clash is long gone. The veterans stayed home to watch the modern generation trying to get revenge over the historical rivals.
Transaero charter flight took a dozen of the players aboard. Evgeny Voronov (coach’s decision), Andrey Vorontsevich (rehabs after injury), Zoran Erceg (practices with the team but out of shape yet), Alexander Gudumak and Dmitry Korshakov (both went to play for the junior team) stayed home. At the same time Sonny Weems and Theodoros Papaloukas joined their teammates.
“We will face the team which shows the highest level of basketball throughout the season and uses the energy from hot home court crowd as well”, CSKA head coach Ettore Messina said. “We need to pass the ball well against their aggressive defense and on the other side of the court we should defend their pick-n-rolls and guard their shooters. Hopefully we will be able to use some of our players who were recovering from injuries recently.”
VTB Teams:
League&Tournament:
