CSKA
The game is over
Moscow
11 March 2021 Thursday / 20:00 MSK
Megasport Sport Palace
CSKA
76
84
Mar. 11 (Thu):
LIVE (for Russia): Match! Country, Match! Game, MatchTV.ru, Sportbox.ru
LIVE (pay): Euroleague.tv

Mar. 12 (Fri):
2:00: Match TV
4:10, 9:40, 17:45: Match! Game
6:00: Match! Country
10.03.2021
Our team beat the Milan team on the road in a dramatic overtime game, and the desire of the opponents to win back is quite understandable. At the same time, the Army Team received a sensitive blow from Efes last week. Who will be more willing to stand up for their own reputation?..
Everyone has its own motivation

PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN

Both teams are ready to appear in front of the fans in almost optimal rosters. The Milanese returned almost all injured (Delaney is still out), while CSKA has only Milutinov out for the rest of the season, the man who set the Euroleague record for offensive rebounds in the game vs Olimpia.

Fortunately, as a result of examinations, Janis Strelnieks is cleared to work with the team. Young players also returned to the roster: Andrey Lopatin and Yuri Umrikhin worked with the main team this week.

PRE-GAME QUOTES

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Milan is a high-standard team of playoff level. They have everything; they have complete roster and they added a couple more players recently, especially Evans at position 4. That's a team that may play different basketball, small-ball or big lineup, depending on Micov or Datome playing at 3 or 4. Definitely, most of things goes off the hands of their guards who are very creative, Shields playing great lately, offensively and defensively, Roll and Chacho are playing great, Punter is their primary scorer who can create shots for himself. The team is very well led and coached by Ettore [Messina]. Overall, it's a great opponent.

Darrun Hilliard, CSKA guard:

They are a pretty good team, they are fighting for the top 4, like we are. They are a well-coached team, got a lot of great players, they gonna come to play. There was a tough fight when we played them back in Milan few weeks ago, so we know they gonna come out and play hard, play tough. We are expecting a good game. We gotta bounce back from our recent loss and we are expecting a good performance out of everybody, not just a couple of players. Everybody needs to bounce back, play hard and, most importantly, have fun.

“RELATIVITY” CONNECTIONS

Coach Ettore Messina had two highly-successful stints coaching CSKA. In his first four-year period in the Russian capital, Messina guided CSKA to two EuroLeague titles (2006 and 2008) and reached two more championship games (2007 and 2009). In his second stint, he reached the Final Four twice (2013 and 2014). During his years at CSKA, Messina coached three players from the current CSKA roster: Andrey Vorontsevich, Kyle Hines and Nikita Kurbanov.

Milan center Kyle Hines spent the last seven seasons with CSKA Moscow. He played 218 EuroLeague games with CSKA, helping the team reach every Final Four in that period, during which they won a total of 173 games and EuroLeague crowns in 2016 and 2019. During his time with the club, he was named team captain and voted as the competition's Best Defender in 2015-16 and 2017-18.

Mike James played for Milan during the 2018-19 season, when he was the Alphonso Ford Top Scorer Trophy winner averaging 19.8 points per game.

Sergio Rodriguez spent two seasons with CSKA, from 2017 to 2019, and helped it win the 2019 EuroLeague title. He played under head coach Dimitris Itoudis and was a teammate of the majority of the current CSKA squad.

Vladimir Micov played for CSKA Moscow for two seasons from 2012 to 2014, during which he reached a pair of EuroLeague Final Fours and won a pair of VTB United League titles. He was a teammate of Kyle Hines during his second season with the club.

Daniel Hackett played for Milan for a season and a half. Hackett joined Milan in December 2013 and stayed there until the summer of 2015. He helped it reach the 2014 EuroLeague Playoffs.

Hackett played under Milan head coach Ettore Messina on the Italian national team in 2016.

Janis Strelnieks and Zach LeDay of Milan were teammates at Olympiacos Piraeus during the 2018-19 season.

Michael Roll was a teammate of CSKA guard Mike James at Laboral Kutxa, now called KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, briefly at the end of the 2015-16 season.

Milan forward Shavon Shields and Toko Shengelia were teammates at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz the past two seasons. CSKA center Michael Eric was also their teammate during the 2019-20 campaign. They all won the 2020 Spanish League together.

Nikita Kurbanov and Malcolm Delaney played for Lokomotiv-Kuban in 2014-15 season.

Both teams’ newcomers Eric and Jeremy Evans played together twice in their pro careers. First, it was Texas Legends of G-League (2015-16), then Darussafaka (2018-19).

IMPORTANT NUMBERS

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

Mike James has made at least 1 three-point shot in 19 straight and 44 of his last 45 games. He ranks third this season with 2.6 three-point shots made per game.

James has scored in double figures in 18 of his last 19 games. He leads the EuroLeague in scoring this season with 19.4 points per game.

Mike James is in 14th place all-time with 2,640 points. His former teammate Kyle Hines of AX Armani Exchange Milan is 13th with 2,685.

Mike James ranks second in the league this season in average PIR with 19.8 per game.

James ranks sixth this season with 5.9 assists per game.

Johannes Voigtmann has made at least 1 three-point shot in 13 of his last 14 games.

Michael Eric needs 12 points to reach 500 for his career.

Semen Antonov needs 21 points to reach 500 for his career.

PAST MATCHUPS

Wins/losses: 13-6

1965-66. European Champions Cup. Semifinal. CSKA – Olimpia: 57-68 (-11)
1982-83. European Champions Cup. Final Round. Olimpia – CSKA: 94-86 (-8)
1982-83. European Champions Cup. Final Round. CSKA – Olimpia: 79-78 (+1)
1996-97. Euroleague. Preliminary Round. Adecco – CSKA: 87-74 (-13)
1996-97. Euroleague. Preliminary Round. CSKA – Adecco: 70-55 (+15)
2008-09. Euroleague. Regular Season. CSKA – Armani Jeans: 90-64 (+26)
2008-09. Euroleague. Regular Season. Armani Jeans – CSKA: 80-79 (-1)
2010-11. Euroleague. Regular Season. CSKA – Armani Jeans: 73-88 (-15)
2010-11. Euroleague. Regular Season. Armani Jeans – CSKA: 71-65 (-6)
2014-15. Euroleague. Top 16. CSKA – EA7 Milan: 97-75 (+22)
2014-15. Euroleague. Top 16. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 79-88 (+9)
2016-17. Euroleague. Regular season. EA7 Milan – CSKA: 64-79 (+15)
2016-17. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – EA7 Milan: 101-64 (+37)
2017-18. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 93-84 (+9)
2017-18. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 81-107 (+26)
2018-19. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 85-90 (+5)
2018-19. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 101-95 (+6)
2019-20. Euroleague. Regular season. CSKA – AX Olimpia Milan: 78-75 (+3)
2020-21. Euroleague. Regular season. AX Olimpia Milan – CSKA: 87-91 OT (+4)

SHORT DOSSIER

AX Olimpia Milan, Italy
Founded: 1936
Colors: red, white
Home court: Mediolanum Forum (11,200)
Owner: Giorgio Armani
President: Pantaleo Dell’Orco
Head coach: Ettore Messina
Website: www.olimpiamilano.com
Trophy case: 3-time Euroleague champions (1966, 87, 88), 3-time Cup Winners Cup champions (1971, 72, 76), 2-time Korac Cup winners (1985, 93), Intercontinental Cup winners (1987), 28-time Italian champions (1936, 37, 38, 39, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 72, 82, 85, 86, 87, 89, 96, 2014, 16, 18), 6-time Italian Cup winners (1972, 86, 87, 96, 16, 17), 2-time Italian SuperCup winners (2016, 18)

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