Getting ready for pressure

The Eastern journey of our team continues. Our team came to Astana after the game in Krasnoyarsk with the same 13-man lineup.

“We continue in VTB League with the game vs Astana. This team changed drastically this year,” CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “It is absolutely different from those teams that we faced here previously, and it is not only about roster changes – though they have 5 new foreigners. Astana is playing better as a team, they are playing seriously. Their game is facilitated by guards Miller and Lowry who run the floor, create for themselves and their partners. At small forward they have Kalaisakis who is good on the block and plays both forward positions. They also have two undersized big men in Odom and Krubally, this guys are very active, they chase offensive rebounds. Astana took 19 offensive boards in the win over Avtodor, they also play full-court pressure very often, so we should be ready for that. I expect it to be a very serious game.”