CSKA — Khimki, 15 December 2013

The battle of VTB League leaders featured little defense as both teams played a kind of shoot-out. “That is not our style,” Ettore Messina said. And that is not our win.

CSKA vs. Khimki (Moscow region): 87-92 (-5)

CSKA: Teodosic (19 + 7 as), Micov (9 + 3 rb), Fridzon (5), Jackson (4), Krstic (11), Weems (13 + 3 rb + 5 as), Vorontsevich (2), Kaun (17 + 2 bs), Hines (7 + 4 rb + 4 pf)…

Khimki: Augustine (13 + 8 rb), Popovic (12 + 4 rb + 6 as + 3 st + 3 to), Koponen (11), Loncar (28 + 4 pf), Monya (13 + 4 rb + 2 bs + 4 pf), Gelabale (2 + 6 rb + 4 as), Green (13 + 4 rb + 10 as + 4 to)…

Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:

Congratulation to Khimki, they played great. We have to blame ourselves for the loss. Our defense is second in Euroleague where we allow opponents to score 67 points on average. Today we allowed 92 points. We lost the game in which we made 55% of two-pointers and 40% three-pointers, where we made 21 assist. But our opponents had 73 and 44 percent. During the halftime break I stressed the team’s attention on the fact that Khimki made 60% from two. And we managed to defend even worse. In fact we allowed around 80% from two in the second half. You should try hard to defend that awful. We could win 100-92 but this is not our style. Defense wins championships as they say.