Khimki — CSKA, 11 December 2020

Pre-game breakdown

As always, the Army Men did not take a difficult trip to Moscow Region for the practice preferring to work out at dear USH CSKA. Janis Strelnieks went back to practices with his teammates. CSKA-2 guard Yuri Umrikhin was involved again.

Khimki has given up 100 points or more in three of its four consecutive defeats and lost those games by an average of 19 points. It'll come down to defense for the hosts, especially on the perimeter, where opponents are making a league-high 10.9 triples per game at a rate of 40.5%, which is the second-worst any EuroLeague team allows. CSKA's defense allows few easy shots, so Khimki needs to mind its rising rate of turnovers, too, while steering the ball to its best-positioned shooters. CSKA will be a little wary of Khimki's league-leading shot-blockers, who reject 4.3 shots per game.

Pre-game quotes

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

We play a EuroLeague game against our Moscow rival. We are pretty satisfied with what we did so far, but in EuroLeague you need to set your mind on each and every game to approach it differently. Here it is already proven that every team can beat every team. Out of all 18 teams, each one lost the game at home or won on the road. We know that the competition is high, that Khimki have a lot of potential, they are a really good team. After they gathered all together, after they got back players from injuries or illnesses they are playing better. Definitely they have a lot of talent to score. We lost last game against them [in VTB United League on November 9] so it makes it even harder for us, but we are focused and determined to go over there and give our fights.

Tornike Shengelia, CSKA forward:

I think we all learned it this year, that you can't underestimate anybody in this league. Anybody can beat anybody in EuroLeague right now. So we have to go there and play 100 percent of our game. It doesn't matter who have higher position, we already lost to them in VTB League, so the matchup is tough. We gotta go, play hard and win this game.

Close relations

Khimki players Alexey Shved, Sergey Monia, Evgeny Voronov and Egor Vialtsev all played for CSKA. Shved played parts of seven seasons for CSKA between 2005 and 2012 and won the 2008 EuroLeague with the club. Monia spent three seasons with CSKA and Vialtsev two. Rimas Kurtinaitis played for CSKA in the 1981-82 season.

Nikita Kurbanov and Voronov defended Lokomotiv-Kuban colors in 2014-15 season.

Paths of Mike James and Greg Monroe crossed at Phoenix Suns in 2017-18 season.

James and Dairis Bertans played for Olimpia Milan in 2018-19.

Janis Timma was a teammate of 4 Army Men: he played for Baskonia with Toko Shengelia and Johannes Voigtmann (2017-18) and for Olympiacos with Janis Strelnieks and Nikola Milutinov (2018-19).

Strelnieks and Bertans both played for Ventspils in 2009-10 season.

Will Clyburn and Bertans debuted in EuroLeague for Darussafaka in 2016-17 season.

Khimki assistant coach Andrey Maltsev coached CSKA juniors for past 15 seasons.

Important numbers

Ten different players have appeared in CSKA's starting lineups so far this season. Only Nikita Kurbanov has started in every game.

Mike James has made at least 1 three-point shot in 31 of his last 32 games. James has made multiple threes in six straight games. He ranks second this season with 2.6 three-point shots made per game.

James has scored in double figures in six straight and 36 of his last 37 games. He leads the EuroLeague in scoring this season with 19.2 points per game.

James ranks fourth this season in average PIR with 18.5 per game.

Will Clyburn has scored in double figures in 10 of his last 11 games. He ranks sixth in scoring this season with 14.8 points per game.

Clyburn has made a three-pointer in four of his last five games.

Nikola Milutinov ranks fourth this season with 6.2 rebounds per game, and ranks second with 2.9 offensive rebounds per game.

Nikola Milutinov is ranked 10th all-time with 402 offensive rebounds. Bryant Dunston of Anadolu Efes Istanbul is ninth with 410 and counting.

Milutinov ranks sixth in the EuroLeague in two-point accuracy this season at 71.9%.

Janis Strelnieks ranks sixth all-time in free-throw accuracy at 90.9%.

Tornike Shengelia has made exactly 100 three-pointers in the EuroLeague.

Shengelia needs 6 rebounds to reach 800 for his career.

Johannes Voigtmann needs 3 offensive rebounds to reach 200 for his career.

Past matchups

Wins-losses: 94-21.
CSKA biggest win: 104-64 (+40) (2002-03 Superleague Regular Season)
CSKA biggest loss: 85-67 (-18) (2007-08 Russian Cup Final)

Game of 2020-21 season:
09-Nov-2020. VTB League. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 86-78 (-8)

Short dossier

Khimki Moscow Region

Founded: 1997
Colors: blue, yellow
Home court: Moscow Region Basketball Center (3,500), Arena Mytishchi (7,000)
President: Dmitry Golubkov
CEO: Pavel Astakhov
Head coach: Rimas Kurtinaitis
Website: www.bckhimki.ru
Trophy Case: 2-time Eurocup winners (2012, 15), Russian Cup winner (2008), VTB United League champion (2011), 9-time Russian League runner-up (2006, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18), Russian League bronze winner (2007), Russian Cup finalist (2006), FIBA-Europe Cup finalist (2006), Eurocup finalist (2009)