Slow them down!

Euroleague third round is marked for CSKA with the meeting with group’s favorite – Maccabi Tel Aviv. Transaero flight 305 brought the team to Israel today.

For the first time in the wake of important game coaches did not think about filling the holes in the roster. Everyone is back from illnesses and injuries except for Matjaz Smodis who will return to practices in the beginning of the next year. Only youngest players – Artem Zabelin and Alexey Shved - weren’t included to the final dozen.

Despite not using the charter flight the team traveled with comfort: CSKA Official Carrier Transaero provided coaches and players with the business class and regular seats distributed in chess order. The plane landed in Tel Aviv quite late – at 8.30 pm – so red-white did not practice on Nokia Arena court in the evening.

“Maccabi is a strong and deep team, which has excellent players on every position, - CSKA head coach Evgeny Pashutin said. First of all, I’d like to mention Wisnewski who played for me in St. Petersburg last season. He is the engine of the team, the player who defines the style. Eidson is a great player as well, he was the Eurocup 2009 MVP and can play on positions from 1 to 3. Wisnewski, Eidson, Anderson and Perkins form very dangerous, aggressive, all-around backcourt. As for the ‘bigs’, the team has shooter Lampe, athletic Fischer and Lasme, experienced Green. Pini Gershon’s style implies fast basketball as his team scores around half of points on fast breaks, especially in Nokia Arena where the crowd pushes the team. To be successive there we should try to slow them down, to pay more attention to rebounding, but at the same time not to focus on defense only. You can win in Tel Aviv even allowing 70 or 80 points. It is important that we have full roster except for Smodis, and that brings more confidence to us.”