San Antonio Spurs vs. CSKA: 95-93 ÎÒ (-2)
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:
I think coach Pop saw what he wanted to see from his team in the third quarter. They gave us some true NBA basketball in those minutes, very intense physically. At the moment we really struggled. When we found the big lineup useful and we found some intensity in ourselves, moved the ball well and we came close to winning. If we won the game it would be something very nice even though coach Popovic after seeing what he wanted to see decided to use his bench. But anyway… We go back home with a lot of information and experience. I think the Spurs tested our toughness because the game was tight for two quarters and a half and then they decided – that’s it. When you see Manu Ginobili and his teammates diving for a lose balls during the preseason game, when you see the toughness in his defense against our guard who found it difficult to shoot the ball… That’s a good lesson of understanding what the real NBA is. Surely, today we faced the toughest and higher level. In the end we wanted to find an open man. Victor played well and he has his open shots. We had some good shots earlier as well with which we could have won the game. But the players miss sometimes and that’s part of the game. Throughout the first two quarters we fought well against their top rotation. But we lost our energy in the third quarter, we did not defend, we could not put up the shot.
