“For us it is a very important game, we face defending champion of Europe,” CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “We need the voice and applause of every fan and I hope we will have full gym that will push us forward to victory. We play in very competitive group so every game here has big influence on the standings.”
The Army Men will miss Aaron Jackson (face surgery) and Victor Khryapa (broken wrist). Andrey Vorontsevich who missed two previous game with chronical foot issue remains questionable.
Stability of the champions
Real Madrid arrives in Moscow as the reigning Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion for the first time in more than two decades. Madrid was close to become the first Euroleague champion not to qualify to the Top 16. The accumulation of games made the team struggle at the beginning of the season. Sergio Rodriguez, Sergio Llull, Rudy Fernandez, Willy Hernangomez and Felipe Reyes were with the Spanish national team all summer long. As soon as Spain won EuroBasket 2015, all five years returned to the Spanish capital and immediately flew to Brazil to conquer the Intercontinental Cup. With some new players – Trey Thompkins, Jeffery Taylor – and some players with many games on their legs, Madrid struggled to win on the road, accumulating four consecutive losses outside Barclaycard Center. A home loss against Khimki Moscow Region made the team go 2-5 but Madrid bounced back in time, winning its last three regular season showdowns to qualify to the Top 16. Gustavo Ayon was the cornerstone to the team’s comeback, with a huge game against FC Bayern Munich in the Bavarian capital. Madrid to the Top 16 in the best shape it had this season – and has the experience to keep it going.
Even when both teams have been to each of the last three Final Fours, Real Madrid and CSKA has never faced each other in the big event in European club basketball other than in the 1996 third place game. Still, Madrid and CSKA have written some of the best, most exciting pages in continental basketball. The longest Euroleague title game ever played featured these two teams on April 2, 1969. CSKA beat Madrid in double overtime, 103-99, in a title game played in Barcelona. Eyeball witnesses say that Vladimir Andreev had a triple double that night, as he added enough rebounds and blocks to his 37 points that night. Sergei Belov had 19 points and Miles Aiken led Madrid with 24 points. Before that, in 1963, Madrid and CSKA had to battle for 120 minutes to determine the Euroleague winner. The 1963 final format was a two-way series, with a third game to be played two days later in case the accumulative score was tied. Indeed, Madrid and CSKA traded 17-point wins. With a third game to be played in Moscow and little chance to win, Madrid requested to play the tie-break game a day earlier because its star Emiliano Rodriguez had to get married and wouldn’t be back in time for the big event. That 1963 final built bridges between Spain and the Soviet Union – both teams had broken diplomatic relations, but basketball brought both countries together.
Madrid and CSKA played another final, in 1965, and Los Blancos won on points differential. CSKA beat Madrid 88-81 in Moscow with 22 points from Gennadiy Volnov, but Madrid answered with a 76-62 home win in Game 2 to claim the title. Emiliano led the way with 24 points.
Madrid won all five titles available – Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Supercup, Euroleague and Intercontinental Cup – for the first time ever and its structure is pretty much the same as last season, especially now that the team brought back K.C. Rivers for the remainder of the season. Fernandez is injured long-term but Madrid signed an athletic, do-it-all player like Jeffery Taylor to replace him. Thompkins and Hernangomez give more depth and power to its frontcourt. Rodriguez and Llull keep running the show, Jaycee Carroll keeps firing in shots from downtown – he probably is the best shooter coming off screen in continental basketball – while Reyes keeps working on his game at age 35, extending his shooting range and being effective as always. Andres Nocioni, who earned Euroleague Final Four MVP honors in 2015, is ready to step up in crucial games. Head coach Pablo Laso extended his contract until the end of the 2017-18 season, so stability is guaranteed in Madrid.
Javier Gancedo, euroleague.net for cskabasket.com
Important numbers
CSKA leads the league in performance index rating (109.4 per game) and Madrid is second (101.3).
CSKA was the Euroleague’s top scoring regular season team with an average of 91.1 points per game.
Nando De Colo was second in the league in performance index rating in the regular season with an average of 22.3 per game. He also ranked second in scoring with 18.1 points per game.
De Colo has made at least 1 three-pointer in 16 of his last 17 Euroleague games.
De Colo has scored in double figures in each of his last 16 Euroleague appearances.
De Colo is the Euroleague’s career leader in free throw accuracy. He’s shooting 93.2 %, having made 219 free throws out of 235 attempts over 58 games for Valencia Basket and CSKA.
De Colo has made 10 straight free throws in Euroleague games.
Milos Teodosic has made at least 1 three-pointer in 34 of his last 35 Euroleague games.
Andrey Vorontsevich has made at least 1 three-pointer in 11 of his last 12 Euroleague appearances.
Cory Higgins has made at least 1 three-pointer in each of his last seven Euroleague appearances. He is shooting 12 for 21 from downtown (57.1%) over that stretch.
Nikita Kurbanov has made 12 consecutive free throws in Euroleague games.
Past matchups
Wins-losses: 24-1-13
1962-63 – Euroleague. Final. Real – CSKA: 86-69 (-17)
1962-63 – Euroleague. Final. CSKA – Real: 91-74 (+17)
1962-63 – Euroleague. Final. CSKA – Real: 99-80 (+19)
1964-65 – Euroleague. Final. CSKA – Real: 88-81 (+7)
1964-65 – Euroleague. Final. Real – CSKA: 76-62 (-14)
1968-69 – Euroleague. Group stage. Real – CSKA: 67-69 (+2)
1968-69 – Euroleague. Group stage. CSKA – Real: 78-89 (-11)
1968-69 – Euroleague. Final. CSKA – Real: 103-99 2ÎÒ (+4)
1970-71 – Euroleague. Group stage. CSKA – Real: 73-66 (+7)
1970-71 – Euroleague. Group stage. Real – CSKA: 58-60 (+2)
1976-77 – Euroleague. 2nd group stage. Real – CSKA: 92-111 (+19)
1976-77 – Euroleague. 2nd group stage. CSKA – Real: 113-111 (+2)
1980-81 – Euroleague. 2nd group stage. Real – CSKA: 104-80 (-24)
1980-81 – Euroleague. 2nd group stage. CSKA – Real: 85-80 (+5)
1982-83 – Euroleague. Group stage. CSKA – Real: 90-93 (-3)
1982-83 – Euroleague. Group stage. Real – CSKA: 91-91 (0)
1984-85 – Euroleague. Group stage. CSKA – Real: 85-97 (-12)
1984-85 – Euroleague. Group stage. Real – CSKA: 84-72 (-12)
1994-95 – Euroleague. Group stage. Real – CSKA: 97-81 (-16)
1994-95 – Euroleague. Group stage. CSKA – Real: 84-82 (+2)
1995-96 – Euroleague. 3rd place game. CSKA – Real: 74-73 (+1)
1997-98 – Euroleague. 1st group stage. CSKA – Real: 90-77 (+13)
1997-98 – Euroleague. 1st group stage. Real – CSKA: 101-93 (-8)
2001-02 – Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – Real: 77-92 (-15)
2001-02 – Euroleague. Regular season. Real – CSKA: 82-86 (+4)
2002-03 – Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – Real: 90-75 (+15)
2002-03 – Euroleague. Regular season. Real – CSKA: 80-93 (+13)
2004-05 – Euroleague. Top 16: Real – CSKA: 94-95 ÎÒ (+1)
2004-05 – Euroleague. Top 16: CSKA – Real: 89-73 (+16)
2005-06 – Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – Real: 64-52 (+12)
2005-06 – Euroleague. Regular season. Real – CSKA: 71-80 ÎÒ (+9)
2008-09 – Euroleague. Regular season. Real – CSKA: 54-58 (+4)
2008-09 – Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – Real: 78-82 (-4)
2012-13 – Euroleague. Top 16. Real – CSKA: 86-78 ÎÒ (-8)
2012-13 – Euroleague. Top 16. CSKA – Real: 81-72 ÎÒ (+9)
2013-14 – Euroleague. Top 16. CSKA – Real: 85-71 (+14)
2013-14 – Euroleague. Top 16. Real – CSKA: 93-79 (-14)
Short dossier
Real Madrid, Spain
Founded: 1931
Colors: white, blue
Home court: Barclaycard Center (15,000)
President: Florentino Perez
Head coach: Pablo Laso
Website: www.realmadrid.es
Trophy case: 9-time Euroleague champion (1963-64, 1964-65, 1966-67, 1967-68, 1973-74, 1977-78, 1979-80, 1994-95, 2014-15); ULEB Cup winner (2007); Korac Cup winner (1988); 4-time Saporta Cup winner (1983-84, 1988-89, 1991-92, 1996-97); 32-time Spanish champion (1956-57, 1957-58, 1959-60, 1960-61, 1961-62, 1962-63, 1963-64, 1964-65, 1965-66, 1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72, 1972-73, 1973-74, 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1979-80, 1981-82, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1999-00, 2004-05, 2006-07, 2012-13, 2014-15); 24-time Copa del Rey winner (1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993, 2012, 2015); 4-time Spanish SuperCup winner (1985, 2012, 2013, 2014); 4-time Intercontinental Cup winner (1976, 1977, 1978, 2015)
