Pre-game breakdown
It will be an all-Russian battle on Friday when already eliminated Khimki Moscow Region hosts CSKA Moscow. The visitors will be playing for second place. For that to happen, CSKA will need to win one of two last games or for Real Madrid to lose its remaining game.
Mikhail Kulagin (foot) is out for CSKA.
Referees
Sreten Radovic (Croatia, crew chief), Mario Majkic (Slovenia), Milija Vojinovic (Serbia).
Pre-game quotes
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
Khimki is our rival here in Moscow. They have quality, they have changed their philosophy recently and they also had some roster changes. The roster has been modified drastically. They have a lot of talent to compete. Our games are always difficult, so we expect a tough game.
Andrey Vorontsevich, CSKA forward:
We would like to pay back for our recent loss in the VTB League. Khimki is a great opponent with many strong players. They will never give up easily on their home court. We have to go out and fight, stay together. Hopefully, we will have many our fans in Mytishchi. I believe it is possible.
Important numbers
Head coach Dimitris Itoudis has used 12 different players in CSKA’s starting lineups this season; no player has started in every EuroLeague game.
Will Clyburn has recorded a performance index rating in double figures in seven straight and 23 of his last 24 games.
Will Clyburn is fifth in the EuroLeague in average performance index rating with 18.4 per game this season.
Clyburn ranks third in rebounding with 7.3 per game.
Cory Higgins has made 21 consecutive free throws in EuroLeague action.
Cory Higgins ranks second in the league in scoring this season with 15.1 points per game. Nando De Colo is fifth with 14.4.
Higgins has made at least 1 three-pointer in six straight EuroLeague games. He is second in the league in three-point accuracy this season at 53.42% and Nikita Kurbanov is fifth at 48.48%.
Nando De Colo ranks fourth in free-throw accuracy this season with 95.12%.
De Colo is the EuroLeague’s career leader in free-throw accuracy at 93.83%.
Sergio Rodriguez has made at least 1 three-pointer in seven of his last eight games. He is 10th all-time with 361 three-point shots made; Dimitris Diamantidis is ninth with 372.
Rodriguez needs 7 steals to reach 200 for his EuroLeague career.
Sergio Rodriguez ranks fifth all-time with 1,067 assists; Milos Teodosic is fourth with 1,126.
Kyle Hines ranks fourth all-time with 205 blocked shots. Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv big man Alex Tyus is third with 207 and counting.
Hines is third in EuroLeague history with 493 offensive rebounds.
Hines is 11th in competition history with 1,113 rebounds. Mike Batiste is 10th with 1,117.
Daniel Hackett needs 2 assists to reach 500 for his EuroLeague career.
Alec Peters has made 13 consecutive free throws in EuroLeague action.
Andrey Vorontsevich has made 11 straight free throws.
Close relations
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. Rimas Kurtinaitis played for CSKA in the 1981-82 season.
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.
Past matchups
Wins-losses: 88-19.
CSKA biggest win: 104-64 (+40) (2002-03 Superleague Regular Season)
CSKA biggest loss: 85-67 (-18) (2007-08 Russian Cup Final)
Games of 2018-19 season:
13-Dec-2018. EuroLeague. Regular Season. CSKA – Khimki: 88-74 (+14)
14-Jan-2019. VTB League. Regular Season. CSKA – Khimki: 75-65 (+10)
04-Mar-2019. VTB League. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 73-72 ОТ (-1)
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: Rimas Kurtinaitis
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)
