CSKA — Lokomotiv Kuban, 10 May 2014

In the second home game of the VTB League quarterfinals our team broke down, suffered its fourth loss in last five official games and found itself at the door of playoffs exit.

CSKA vs. Lokomotiv (Krasnodar): 66-81 (-15)

CSKA: Teodosic (2 + 5 to), Fridzon (10 + 3 st), Pargo (3 + 3 rb + 5 as + 4 st), Krstic (11 + 4 rb), Weems (16 + 5 rb + 4 as + 4 to + 4 pf), Vorontsevich (13 + 5 pf), Kaun (5), Khryapa (6 + 4 rb)…

Lokomotiv: Brown (8 + 5 rb + 3 to), Williams (24 + 6 to), Hendrix (6 + 4 rb + 4 st + 4 pf), Kalnietis (7 + 4 rb + 3 to), Lihodey (4 + 5 pf), Maric (12 + 6 rb), Ponkrashov (2), Simon (18 + 6 rb + 7 as + 3 to)…

Ettore Messina, CSKA head coach:

Krasnodar won with full credit. They attacked our weaknesses and first of all defense against point guard and guard. Still even after what happened in previous game we were down by just 2-3 points. But in the third quarter we made 6 consecutive turnovers trying to come up with the highlight play instead of playing simple against aggressive defense. That showed again that we are not reliable and to my regret I could not change it in this two years here. And I am not sure if I can change it in the next four days before we go to the Final Four. We will come to the gym again, we will talk, we will try but you cannot change the human nature.

Sasha Kaun, CSKA center:

I can’t explain what happened. Seems to be it is just our destiny to lose both games on our home court. We need to forget all things we did last two days and try to focus on the Final Four. Then we’ll see.