Pre-game breakdown
The Army Men had a day off on Monday and had two practices at Megasport before derby.
Kosta Koufos remains out with foot injury.
The last two Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winners, Mike James and Alexey Shved, go head to head in this one.
Pre-game quotes
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
We play against our historical rival here in Moscow. They created good team as always this past years. They have very good group of high-quality players, that plays excellent basketball. We can expect the game to be exciting.
Daniel Hackett, CSKA guard:
It is a rivalry, the game that is important for our fans and for us. We face a team that is in very good shape, they show good basketball early in the season. We must prepare for physical game, a battle – like always against Khimki. We play on our home court so hopefully the fans will support us.
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.
Important numbers
Will Clyburn has scored in double figures and had a double-digit PIR in eight of his last nine games.
Mike James has made at least 1 three-point shot in seven of his last eight games.
Kyle Hines ranks third all-time with 211 blocked shots.
Hines ranks second all-time with 514 offensive rebounds. Felipe Reyes is the all-time leader with 695.
Hines ranks eighth all-time with 1,155 total rebounds. Kerem Gonlum is seventh with 1,189.
Janis Strelnieks ranks seventh all-time in free throw accuracy at 90.63%.
Janis Strelnieks needs 8 assists to reach 300 for his career.
Past matchups
Wins-losses: 92-19.
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)
29-Mar-2019. EuroLeague. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 72-80 (+8)
05-June-2019. VTB League. Final. CSKA – Khimki: 106-85 (+21)
07-June-2019. VTB League. Final. CSKA – Khimki: 103-92 (+11)
10-June-2019. VTB League. Final. Khimki – CSKA: 62-80 (+18)
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)
