The old town deep in Baskonia greeted the army men with good weather and well-known city sights. But nobody wishes to stay here: CSKA needs the third win in the Euroleague quarterfinals badly.
It is not about being blood-thirsty or hurrying. The schedule prepares the away game in Samara on Sunday, and the result of the game will decide the fate of Russian League title. It is difficult to fly from Atlantic coast to Volga banks without visiting home so the red-blues have some extra motivation for the game on Wednesday.
“I don’t think the series is finished; we still have to work hard,” CSKA head coach Ettore Messina said. “We should stay focused, show aggressiveness and, at the same time, patience. We should guard their main offensive options, defend their pick-n-rolls and post-up situations, take care about the ball and follow our offensive flow. We think about our game first, we know we have the room to improve and we will try to raise our level. Our approach is still to go game-by-game. Game 3 awaits us; we go to Vitoria and let’s see what happens.”
The army men are in full strength. Only the youngest players – Alexander Gudumak and Dmitry Korhakov – stayed in Moscow to practice with the junior team.
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