Pre-game breakdown
The Army Men got back to work immediately after the win against Enisey. The team practiced at USH CSKA on Tuesday because of ice hockey game at Megasport and moved to the bigger arena today.
The Khimki will be without Alexey Shved (broken finger) and Anthony Gill (back).
Pre-game quotes
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Khimki have a good team and they play good basketball recently, winning on the road in some difficult games like the one against Zalgiris. They have several newcomers, which requires time to build the team, but they are doing well. They will play without Shved, the EuroLeague’s leading scorer, but that will make them even more motivated. We expect them to play very aggressive defense, to fight like a wounded animal. We definitely don’t take this game easy, we are not going to sleep over.
Semen Antonov, CSKA forward:
Russian derby in EuroLeague doesn’t require additional introductions. Obviously, without Shved and Gill Khimki will play even more aggressively on defense, they will play as a team on offense, you can expect the threat from everyone. We count on our fans to help us.
Referees
Boris Ryzhik (Ukraine, crew chief), Benjamin Jimenez (Spain), Marko Juras (Serbia).
Close relations
CSKA big man Kyle Hines and Khimki head coach Georgios Bartzokas won the 2013 EuroLeague title together at Olympiacos Piraeus.
Khimki players Alexey Shved, Sergey Monia and Egor Vialtsev all played for CSKA. Shved played parts of seven seasons for CSKA between 2005 and 2012 and won the 2008 EuroLeague with the club. Monia spent three seasons with CSKA and Vialtsev two.
Dimitris Itoudis coached Khimki guard Stefan Markovic two seasons ago in Turkey at Banvit Bandirma.
Markovic was a teammate of CSKA guard Nando De Colo during the 2011-12 season at Valencia Basket. The backcourt duo helped Valencia reach the EuroCup championship game that season.
Khimki forward Petr Gubanov and his CSKA counterpart Semen Antonov were teammates at Nizhny Novgorod during the 2013-14 season.
Important numbers
Coach Itoudis has used 10 different players in CSKA’s starting lineup this season; only Othello Hunter has started in every EuroLeague game.
Sergio Rodriguez has made at least 1 three-point shot in each of his last 17 EuroLeague games.
Rodriguez is fifth in the EuroLeague in assists this season with 5.5 per game. He needs 11 more assists to become just the fifth player in EuroLeague history to reach 1,000 career assists. Barcelona point guard Thomas Heurtel is next on the list with 1,065 career assists and counting.
Cory Higgins has scored in double figures in 18 consecutive EuroLeague games. He is ranked third in the league in scoring this season with 17.3 points per game.
Higgins has made at least 1 three-pointer in six straight games.
Will Clyburn has scored at least 10 points in seven straight EuroLeague games.
Will needs 8 points to reach 1,000 for his EuroLeague career.
Clyburn has collected at least 1 steal in seven of CSKA’s last eight EuroLeague games.
Clyburn has made 15 consecutive free throws in EuroLeague games.
Will Clyburn is fifth in the EuroLeague this season in average performance index rating at 18.7 per game. He is ranked fifth in rebounding with 6.9 per game.
Nikita Kurbanov has made 12 consecutive free throws in EuroLeague games.
Alec Peters has made at least 1 three-pointer each of his last nine games and made multiple threes in eight of them. He is shooting 26 for 45 from downtown (57.8%) over that stretch. He leads the EuroLeague this season in three-point accuracy at 57.8%. Higgins is third at 52.5%.
Nando De Colo leads all qualified players this season in free throw accuracy at 93.8%. He is the EuroLeague career leader in free throw accuracy at 93.66%.
Kyle Hines is ranked fourth in EuroLeague history with 191 blocked shots. Ioannis Bourousis is third with 194 blocks.
Hines is third in EuroLeague history with 468 offensive rebounds.
Hines is ranked 12th in competition history with 1,064 rebounds. His former CSKA teammate Victor Khryapa is ranked 11th with 1,070 boards.
Past matchups
Wins-losses: 86-18, Euroleague: 6-2.
CSKA biggest win: 104-64 (+40) (2002-03 Superleague Regular Season)
CSKA biggest loss: 85-67 (-18) (2007-08 Russian Cup Final)
Short dossier
Khimki Moscow Region
Founded: 1997
Colors: blue, yellow
Home court: Moscow Region Basketball Center (3,500), Arena Mytishchi (7,000)
President: Dmitry Golubkov
CEO: Pavel Astakhov
Head coach: Giorgios Bartzokas
Website: www.bckhimki.ru
Trophy Case: 2-time Eurocup winners (2012, 15), Russian Cup winner (2008), VTB United League champion (2011), 9-time Russian League runner-up (2006, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18), Russian League bronze winner (2007), Russian Cup finalist (2006), FIBA-Europe Cup finalist (2006), Eurocup finalist (2009)
