The Red-Blues had “football” roster of 11 players onboard of OrenAir liner. Victor Khryapa (left ankle, right hip) continues rehabilitation in the clinic in Athens, Demetris Nichols (left adductor) is doing conservative therapy in Moscow, Nando De Colo (left hand) started to partially participate in non-contact drills with the team but still stayed to continue practicing individually. Anton Astapkovich who worked with the main team past week is not on Euroleague roster. He left to Samara to help junior team right after today’s practice.
“We are coming to Berlin to face a strong team which currently has no losses in official games and which performed really well in recent German SuperCup game,” CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “Alba has the same coach and the same system for years, their game is based on aggressiveness on both sides of the floor, drives, offensive rebounds and fast breaks. I expect the game to be tough, and I know that we will play on full big arena in front of the fans who are very supportive towards their team, who add some energy to home team players. I truly believe that Alba is a favorite in this contest. Still we are approaching the game well-prepared, we analyzed our game in recent loss to Lokomotiv-Kuban and our main task is to avoid the same mistakes we did in Krasnodar. Last but not least: Alba beat defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs last week. We understand it was just a friendly game but in was a game against the Spurs, and as [San Antonio head coach] Gregg Popovic said they played to win. It tells a lot about our opponent.”
“Close relations”
Jonathan Tabu was a teammate of CSKA Moscow swingman Manuchar Markoishvili during the 2010-11 and part of the 2012-13 seasons with Italian club Pallacanestro Cantu.
Marko Banic was a teammate of CSKA guard Aaron Jackson for two seasons at Bilbao Basket between 2010 and 2012. They led the club to the Euroleague playoffs in 2012, where Bilbao lost in four games to CSKA.
Important numbers
CSKA players Demetris Nichols, Pavel Korobkov and Ivan Strebkov are poised to make their respective Euroleague debuts.
Sasha Kaun leads the Euroleague in career two-point shooting percentage. Kaun has made 314 of 445 two-point shots (70.56%). He also leads the career field goal shooting percentage list; Kaun has never attempted a three-point shot in 112 Euroleague career games.
Vitaly Fridzon has made at least 1 three-pointer in 22 straight Euroleague games. He is shooting 42 for 81 (51.8%) from downtown over that stretch.
Sonny Weems needs 30 points to reach the 1,000-point milestone for his Euroleague career.
Kyle Hines needs 6 more blocked shots to reach the 100 plateau for his Euroleague career.
Milos Teodosic needs 13 more assists to surpass another CSKA Moscow great, J.R. Holden, for seventh place on the Euroleague’s career assists charts. Teodosic enters the season with 596 career assists.
