CSKA — Valencia Basket, 29 October 2020

Our team hosts “hot” Valencia on the Megasport floor.

Pre-game breakdown

The Spanish club is one of the most successful ones on the start of the season. Valencians won three of their four games, including the away games against Real Madrid and Zalgiris.

All four Army Men who were out due to COVID-19 recovered and cleared to practice. Andrey Lopatin was the last one to pass the tests, he is still practices individually.

Joel Bolomboy remains out due to leg injury.

Pre-game quotes

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Valencia is a very good team. They are playoff team for sure. They are deep on all positions, they can play with different lineups, they play good basketball both in EuroLeague and ACB. The most important for them is that they stay together, they have no absences, and you can see it on the court. We slowly get our personnel back, we look a bit better, we can do more during the practices, we aware that it will take time for us but we are motivated to try hard and play good basketball. I am very optimistic, I am sure that we are on a good way.

Tornike Shengelia, CSKA forward:

It’s a very strong opponent, the team that plays strong both inside and outside. They have good guards, their bigs can play under the basket or they can pop and shoot threes. They have a lot of weapons offensively. Defensively, they like to press the ball. They have complete roster, they move ball a lot. Obviously, it is going to be a tough game, we gonna come and play our best basketball, we have to depend not on our opponent, but on ourselves. If we do everything good, 100 percent, we will put ourselves in good position to win the game.

“Relativity” connections

Valencia’s Vanja Marinkovic and CSKA center Nikola Milutinov both grew up with Partizan Belgrade. They played together for two seasons, from 2013 to 2015.

Valencia swingman Fernando San Emeterio and CSKA guard Mike James were teammates at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz during the 2014-15 season.

Valencia sharpshooter Klemen Prepelic played under current CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis at Banvit Bandirma during the 2013-14 season.

CSKA forward Tornike Shengelia played at Valencia for two seasons, from 2008 to 2010, and helped Valencia win the 2010 EuroCup title.

Important numbers

Ten different players have appeared in CSKA’s starting lineups so far this season. Only Nikita Kurbanov has started in every game.

Mike James has made at least 1 three-point shot in 25 of his last 26 games.

James has scored in double figures in 30 of his last 31 games.

Mike James ranks fourth in scoring this season with 17.6 points per game.

Will Clyburn ranks third in scoring this season with 19.2 points per game. He needs 19 points to reach 1,500 for his career.

Will Clyburn has recorded at least 1 steal in six of his last seven games.

Daniel Hackett has made 17 consecutive free throws.

Hackett has recorded at least 1 steal in five straight games.

Tornike Shengelia has recorded double-digit PIRs in 12 of his last 13 games.

Shengelia ranks fifth this season with 7.2 total rebounds per game and seventh with 3.0 offensive rebounds per game.

Tornike Shengelia needs 5 more three-pointers to reach 100 in the EuroLeague.

Joel Bolomboy ranks fourth this season with 1.3 blocks per game.

Janis Strelnieks ranks sixth all-time in free-throw accuracy at 90.9%.

Nikola Milutinov ranks 12th all-time with 377 offensive rebounds. Former CSKA great Mirsad Turkcan is 11th with 385.

Darrun Hilliard needs 1 more three-pointer to reach 100 in the EuroLeague.

Past matchups

Wins/losses: 4-2
2010-11 Euroleague Regular Season
Valencia – CSKA: 82-57 (-25)
CSKA – Valencia: 73-63 (+10)
2017-18 Euroleague Regular Season
CSKA – Valencia: 94-67 (+27)
Valencia – CSKA: 103-99 (-4)
2019-20 Euroleague Regular Season
Valencia – CSKA: 71-96 (+25)
CSKA – Valencia: 81-70 (+11)

Short dossier

Valencia Basket, Spain
Founded: 1986
Colors: orange, white, black
Home court: Pabellon Fuente De San Luis (9,000)
President: Vicente J. Solà Sanz
Head coach: Jaume Ponsarnau
Website: www.valenciabasket.com
Trophy case: EuroCup winner (2003, 2010, 2014), Spanish League champion (2016-17), Spanish Cup winner (1998), Spanish SuperCup winner (2017)