CSKA — Zenit, 23 May 2019

CSKA vs. Zenit St.Petersburg: 98-82 (+16)

CSKA: Clyburn (11 + 5 rb + 3 as), Higgins (16 + 5 as), Hackett (12 + 2 as), Kurbanov (8 + 3 rb + 2 as), Hunter (22 + 6 rb) – start; Bolomboy (2), Ukhov (2 + 4 pf), Antonov (15 + 2 bs), Rodriguez (5 + 3 rb + 7 as), Vorontsevich (3 rb), Lopatin (2), Hines (3 + 3 bs)…

Zenit: Reynolds (14 + 5 rb + 5 pf), Karasev (11 + 2 as), Miller-McIntyre (11 + 3 rb + 6 as + 4 pf), Voronov (12 + 4 rb + 3 as + 4 pf), Valiev (4 + 3 rb) – start; Mekel (9 + 3 as), Balashov (2), Pushkov (5), Trushkin (2), Simonovic (4), Uthoff (8 + 6 rb), Scrubb (0)…

Congratulations to my players. We came here to play after just two practices, with some injuries and other obligations. Nando asked me to stay with his family, he had not seen his newborn daughter [before the Final Four] so he had not practiced with the team. Chacho had some problems with his foot, Will and Cory had their issues. We managed to overcome all this obstacles and the emotional part, coming after victorious Final Four. We’ve been to this situations before. We started the game thinking that we will win just offensively, we were not focused on the defensive end with all respect to quality that Zenit has. We gave some answers in the locker room and after that the players found their own answers on the court. In the third quarter we gave up just 13 points and set the tone defensively. At the same time we were still solid on offense, creating and making good plays. It is just 1-0 and we have many obligations as a club. We respect our club and our fans, I want to thank him for the numbers and to the players and myself.

I talk to Othello a lot, not only this year, but in the previous season too. We had many discussions. In the NBA they have so called garbage minutes that do not exist in my system. Why I am starting with that? Othello had some issues defensively in the beginning, Reynolds was scoring easily. But after that he gave a lot to the team, he was aggressive defensively and offensively. I could have played him longer and he would have bigger numbers but this is a playoff series, it is all about the team. We need to give time to others in order to stay fresh, he understands this completely. He demonstrated different mindset in just few seconds of the first quarter. Regarding Simon, it is hard for the player who’ve been lately out of lineup… He kept his positivity and work ethic on high level, he kept believing and trusting in the system. So I congratulated him in the locker room specifically, and players gave him a round of applause. We need him, this is playoff time.