Pre-game breakdown
The team got plenty of time to prepare after finishing the series against Baskonia. The player got a couple of days off and returned to practices.
Mikhail Kulagin (foot injury) remains out. The coaching staff doesn’t count on Nando De Colo in the beginning of the serious after the guard injured his knee in the Game 4 against Baskonia.
Word to the coach
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
First of all, congratulations to all eight teams that qualified for the VTB League playoffs. We play against Nizhny, very competitive team, young and ambitious, well-coached and always fighting. This is a great series for us, we are going into Game 1, we focus on it and we know all difficulties in front of us. We had four good practices plus individual workouts, weightlifting. The players are good. Unfortunately we don’t have Nando with us, he is not practicing, which is a minus, but I believe he will join the team in the next couple of days.
Past matchups
Win-loss record: 22-3
2018-19 season games:
13-Oct-2018. CSKA – N.Novgorod: 84-78 (+6)
09-Apr-2019. N.Novgorod – CSKA: 89-95 (+6)
Short dossier
Nizhny Novgorod
Founded: 2000
Colors: white, black
Homecourt: Labor Unions Palace of Sports (5,000)
President: Dmitry Svatkovsky
Head coach: Zoran Lukic
Website: www.nn-basket.ru
Accomplishments: VTB United League runner-ups (2014), Russian Championship runner-up (2014), Superleague B champion (2010), Russian Cup finalists (2011)
