Game 1. CSKA – Maccabi: 80-58. To be continued..?

CSKA won the first game of the Euroleague plays off series. The Moscovites shocked the rival with 8 threepointers in 13 minutes and tough defense that allowed only 22 points in the first half.

CSKA – Maccabi Tel-Aviv: 80-58

Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:

- I think we played a good game and clearly won it. We came to the court concentrated and were aggressive enough in the first quarter. We managed to keep on play good defense until in the second quarter. And after a good start after the half time break it seems Maccabi thought we would continue the same way until the end. Unfortunately the fact that we won the game by 22 points does not mean a lot in the plays off. We can loose by 1 in Tel Aviv but it would mean the series would come back to Moscow for the third, decisive game. So I would like to warn our fans of sending us to the Final Four. We prefer to go game by game. And without any means it would be very difficult to play in Tel Aviv. I do not know why many people thought that the first game would be the point in the series. There were talks all other Europe that Maccabi would put maximum effort to this game. But I think that the most important game of the series is the 3rd one.