Alexander Bashminov: I really want to play well in Perm!

Alexander Bashminov and Valentin Kubrakov took a second to talk about the final series of the Russian Championship.

Alexander Bashminov, PBC CSKA center:

“It’s no coincidence that Ural Great is in the final. In my opinion, the key factor in the Perm teams win over UNICS was the home-court advantage. In order to win, we can’t allow them to play the game they want to with all of their players running, shooting and hitting shots. I can’t say that I’m capable of advising my teammates on how to play against my former team. This season Ural-Great has an entirely new roster. They even started to play a different style. When I played there, we scored a lot of points in the paint. Now the Perm team shoots a lot of 3-pointers. I would like to play my best in Perm. I have a lot of good memories from my time there.”


Valentin Kubrakov, PBC Ural Great guard:

“I don’t think that CSKA had a letdown after the two losses in Barcelona. A whole week has gone by since the Euroleague Final Four finished, and the team has had enough time to recover. So the final series between CSKA and Ural Great will be played on equal terms. We came to Moscow to win, but regardless of the results, the main battle will be in Perm. How can we beat CSKA? It’s a simple question. We need to try to shut down their leaders: Songaila, Alexander and Holden. But it won’t be easy. CSKA plays very well under the basket. But in the semifinal series with UNICS, we showed that we can play defense. We will fight. Then we’ll see.”