In the last game of the group stage of the European Championship Russians took on slightly pinking, but still very dangerous Nowitzki’s German Machine:
Russia - Germany: 50-51
The first half of the game was rather surprising: our players collected 26 points - after 52 in the battle against Italians. And even more striking was the fact that Germans scraped up only 16! It was a modest number “6”in a scoring column of “Dallas Mavericks” superforward (truth to say, with 12 rebounds as well).
Unfortunately, situation changed a bit then. Our team fixedly stuck in the opponent’s defense zone, we couldn’t find our shots and make a scoring run. The end was sad: Russians didn’t have enough time to find an answer to the Nowitzki’s decisive three–pointer.
Again coaches didn’t trust a lot Alexey Savrasenko – he spent only six minutes on the field this time. CSKA guards John Robert Holden (13 pt) and Zakhar Pashutin (5 pt + 6 reb) tried to do their best, but both of them didn’t have very successful evening.
However our guys don’t have to grieve over that defeat – we have missed nothing on this tournament yet. The first place in a group is claimed – so we won’t need to play an additional game to qualify to the quarter- finals.
Russian’s next rival will be decided in a game between Greece (their team defeated Bosnia today - Theodoros Papaloukas added 4 assists to 9 points) and Israel, which will be played on September, 20.
VTB Teams:
League&Tournament:
