Six in a row!

CSKA vs. Panathinaikos (Athens): 81-80 (+1)

CSKA: De Colo (14 + 3 rb + 3 to + 4 pf), Teodosic (19 + 3 rb + 11 as + 4 to), Fridzon (3), Jackson (1), Korobkov (8 + 3 rb), Vorontsevich (10 + 3 rb), Higgins (6 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Kurbanov (6 + 4 rb), Hines (14 + 3 rb + 2 bs)…

Panathinaikos: Pavlovic (10 + 4 rb + 3 to), Charalampopoulos (3), Jankovic (7 + 5 rb + 4 pf), Fotsis (5 + 6 rb + 4 pf), Raduljica (12 + 5 rb + 3 st + 4 pf), Feldeine (17 + 5 rb + 4 as + 3 st), Diamantidis (4 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Calathes (14 + 4 as + 5 pf), Kuzmic (8 + 11 rb)…

Today luck was on our side, the game could turn both ways. We lacked concentration in the beginning we let the opponent make some easy things. If you look at the stats we had 7 turnovers in the 1st quarter, some of them were unforced, some were the result of Panathinaikos defense: Calathes was aggressive on hand-offs, the centers were playing “hedge” on our pick-n-rolls. Besides we let PAO score 87% of two-pointers. We changed our defense in the second half, played 43 and 42 pressure, match-up zone. We tried to match the opponents size. In the last three quarters we had just 5 turnovers, we made 18 assists, 11 of them by Milos. It says about good team game even though we did not shoot well from outside. I agree with coach Djordjevic who compared the game to the Euroleague championship game. The team showed respect to the tournament by this. Panathinaikos schooled us on the rebounding though it was also because of our defensive system. I’d like to congratulate my players and thank the fans who cheered for us from the beginning till the end.