At least Smodis is back

Our team postponed the chance to claim the first place in Russian Superleague regular championship allowing Khimki to celebrate their first win over CSKA in four games this season.

CSKA vs. Khimki Moscow Region: 68-73

Evgeny Pashutin, CSKA head coach:

“I’d like to congratulate Khimki with the win and decent game. They played zone for 40 minutes and we weren’t effective enough against it. We were passive both on defense and on offense, we were lacking aggressiveness which is natural for us. It’s difficult to say why we weren’t ready for the game mentally – we prepared very seriously. We will analyze, we’ll try to find out what went wrong, but I ask you not to look for the players who are guilty. I took full responsibility for the lack of attitude. I am glad for Matjaz who looked good in our team’s actions, showed worthy basketball, defended effectively and interacted with Khryapa quite well. During last possession we planned that Holden will drive and he will try to organize three-point play but Langdon got the ball. Trajan tried to do what was planned but unfortunately committed the turnover in the centercourt.”