For the first time in the history of the club CSKA played an NBA team. The result was impressive as the Army club won by 19 points – 94-75 and was ahead of the rival for all the game but 12 seconds.
CSKA vs LA Clippers: 94-75
Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach
- Obviously I'm very pleased with the win, but more importantly, I'm pleased with the way we played. We played team basketball, and this is why we are happy. We're looking forward to the season. We know the way we have to play well to be successful. Of course, everybody understands that the Clippers are at the beginning of their preparation and that we need to stay extremely humble, because there will be a lot of other challenges. The win is the great achievement also because we had to play without our starting center Alexey Savrasenko.
Why Zakhar Pashutin did not have a chance to play tonight?
- He did not recover completely from the ankle injury and it could be hard for him right now to compete at this level. But I know Zakhar understood that by himself.
CSKA guard Theodoros Papaloukas
- It was a big moment for CSKA, because after many years an NBA team finally came back to Russia. We showed we were a very good team, even though both teams are at the beginning of the season. This was a big chance for us to play an NBA team, and I think everybody was concentrated and focused. Right now we're going to celebrate and rest tomorrow, because it's not often you beat an NBA team and we have to go to Cologne to finish this tournament.
CSKA guard David Vanterpool
- The most important thing for our team is to keep getting better, and tonight everybody got a chance to see what our team is capable of when we play together, move the ball and play good defense. It's great to beat and NBA team. But our goal was not to win against the Los Angeles Clippers in October. Our goal is to defend our Russian championship and our Euroleague championship.
Los Angeles Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy
- Their team played extremely well, and they should be proud of the way they handled us. We know it was going to be a very tough game, and in no way did we take them lightly. For us, coming in with four days to get ready, we had a lot of respect for them. We knew what they could do. And unfortunately, we couldn't stop it. I think they have a lot of talent. They play really well together. I love how hard they play, how hard they cut. Based on today's performance, I think they'd win a lot of games in the NBA.
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