CSKA — Khimki, 15 March 2021

PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN

CSKA lost in the first meeting of the teams at Khimki. At the moment the hosts used a completely different roster, and the tone was set by strong foreigners. Now the best player of that game, Greg Monroe as well as Jonas Jerebko have left the club, Janis Timma, Devin Booker, Stefan Jovic and Dajris Bertans are only nominally listed in the roster.

Nikola Milutinov and Janis Strelnieks, excluded from the VTB League roster, will not play for CSKA.

The Red and Blues on Friday held a lengthy video session dedicated to the analysis of the defeat from Olimpia, and over the next two days they trained fully.

WORD TO THE COACH

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

I give a lot of credit to Khimki lately, they have showed big character by being composed, looking great and winning games. They won on the road against Zenit, at home against Real, they competed until the end vs Zvezda. They really hustle, they play to the level of fouls. We need to be cautious, match this aggressivity and compete on the highest level as well.

CLOSE RELATIONS

Khimki players Alexey Shved, Sergey Monia, Evgeny Voronov and Egor Vialtsev all played for CSKA. Shved played parts of seven seasons for CSKA between 2005 and 2012 and won the 2008 EuroLeague with the club. Monia spent three seasons with CSKA and Vialtsev two.

Nikita Kurbanov and Voronov defended Lokomotiv-Kuban colors in 2014-15 season.

James and Dairis Bertans played for Olimpia Milan in 2018-19.

Janis Timma was a teammate of 4 Army Men: he played for Baskonia with Toko Shengelia and Johannes Voigtmann (2017-18) and for Olympiacos with Janis Strelnieks and Nikola Milutinov (2018-19).

Strelnieks and Bertans both played for Ventspils in 2009-10 season.

Will Clyburn and Bertans debuted in EuroLeague for Darussafaka in 2016-17 season.

Khimki interim coach Andrey Maltsev coached CSKA juniors for past 15 seasons.

PAST MATCHUPS

Wins-losses: 95-21

CSKA biggest win: 104-64 (+40) (2002-03 Superleague Regular Season)
CSKA biggest loss: 85-67 (-18) (2007-08 Russian Cup Final)

Games of 2020-21 season:

09-Nov-2020. VTB League. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 86-78 (-8)
11-Dec-2020. EuroLeague. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 87-96 (+19)

SHORT DOSSIER

Khimki Moscow Region

Founded: 1997
Colors: blue, yellow
Home court: Moscow Region Basketball Center (3,500), Arena Mytishchi (7,000)
President: Dmitry Golubkov
CEO: Pavel Astakhov
Interim head coach: Andrey Maltsev
Website: www.bckhimki.ru
Trophy Case: 2-time Eurocup winners (2012, 15), Russian Cup winner (2008), VTB United League champion (2011), 9-time Russian League runner-up (2006, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18), Russian League bronze winner (2007), Russian Cup finalist (2006), FIBA-Europe Cup finalist (2006), Eurocup finalist (2009)