Not ourselves

CSKA vs. Baskonia Vitoria: 68-78 (-10)

CSKA: Rodriguez (14 + 3 as + 4 to), Clyburn (14 + 6 rb + 2 as + 3 to), Higgins (15 + 3 as + 4 pf), Kurbanov (7 + 4 rb + 2 as), Hunter (4 + 3 rb) – start; De Colo (6 + 2 as), Bolomboy (0), Peters (2), Ukhov (0), Vorontsevich (0), Hackett (2), Hines (4 + 6 rb + 2 st)…

Baskonia: Voigtmann (4 + 4 as + 2 st), Huertas (1 + 6 as + 4 to), Shengelia (7 + 5 rb + 2 as + 2 st), Garino (11), Shields (15) – start; Vildoza (7 + 4 as), Gonzalez (DNP), Janning (3), Diop (0), Poirier (14 + 15 rb + 2 as + 4 st + 4 to), Jones (0), Hilliard (16 + 3 rb)…

I would like to congratulate Baskonia for the win. They were more decisive in many moments and they managed to tie the series. We knew that it was going to be a tough series and it was proven; they just tied the series. If we get into the analysis, we definitely gave up too easy a start and too easy points on their offensive creativity and the best possible shots that they had at the beginning of the first quarter; 27 points is too much, because if you make a summary of the first and third quarters, which I’m going to also refer to, you will see the result is 33-51 for them. But if you make the sum of the second and the fourth quarters, you will see it is 35-27 for us. I am saying that because the key is we gave them too much in the first half in general, but especially the first quarter. Huge difference from how we played the second quarter and how we played much of the third quarter. We came to 52-53 with the three-pointer of Chacho [Rodriguez] from the corner and the timeout. And then they ran 13-0. Of course, the fatigue of this lineup that brought the team to 52-53 was questionable and that’s why we tried to rotate. But unfortunately, that momentum was the key momentum for them. This was not a game of Xs and Os though both teams made some changes, it was all about approach, decisiveness, intensity and confidence. The series are tied, we need two more wins to qualify. Thank you to the fans who helped us tonight, unfortunately, we did not please them. Still I promise that we will not just do our best, but we will give ourselves to win the series in Vitoria or bring it back to Moscow. I promise that we will be decisive and determined. We have a lot to talk about behind closed doors, to look at the mirror and see what we should change in ourselves.