Flew away with Sokolov

If you’d like to choose one key game for CSKA from the remaining schedule in the Euroleague regular season, it will be the upcoming game. Our team will face Lottomatica tomorrow in Rome, the team which made CSKA to suffer the only home loss of the season.

Red and blue away roster was changed once again: Dmitry Sokolov stepped on board of Transaero Boeing after completing three-week long ankle rehabilitation process. The center replaced Artem Zabelin who was sent to the junior team which played two important games in Khimki. Thus, Matjaz Smodis remains the only player in CSKA hospital.

The situation in Group C is very difficult for CSKA. The victory in Rome is necessary, because in opposite case the plan to finish the first stage as one of two best teams in the group will be under danger. Moreover, considering the game vs group leader Maccabi, tough visit to Ljubljana and the home meeting with Caja Laboral even third place will be very difficult to reach.

“That will be one of the most difficult games for us, - CSKA head coach Evgeny Pashutin said. Lottomatica lost only to Maccabi at home in overtime period with big chances to get a win. Their game is built on leaders – Jaaber, Hutson and Winston who play 30-35 minutes a game each. They also can rely on other players, and if you will not pay enough attention to Minard or Toure for example, you will pay the price for that. We played some good games, showed good level of basketball against Caja Laboral and Maroussi but we weren’t that impressive vs Zalgiris on Sunday, especially on offense. Partially I can explain that with some downfall of our leaders shape as they carried a big load in the beginning of the season, so they got a day for rest and recovery upon our return from Kaunas. And we started to prepare for Lottomatica specifically from Tuesday. Except for offense we will prepare some defensive adjustments, because Lottomatica is a high-scoring team. Despite the loss in recent game of Italian league they scored 97 points.”