10.10.2021
Our team will spend at home a double week of the Euroleague, which starts on Tuesday with a meeting with Zenit...
A week at Megasport

PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN

The teams met three times during the preseason. The first game - in the final of the Kondrashin-Belov Cup - ended up with a big victory of Zenit - 73-100. After that CSKA took the upper hand twice - at the tournament in Nicosia (75-64) and in the final of the VTB United League SuperCup (81-73).

CSKA had really short rest. The team did not practice only on Saturday, after the morning flight from Istanbul. On Monday, the red-and-blues moved to Megasport, which will become a home for Muscovites for the entire week.

Nikola Milutinov (knee) and Marius Grigonis (back) continue their rehab.

REFEREES

Ilija Belosevic (crew chief, Serbia), Milan Nedovic (Slovenia), Joseph Bissang (France).

PRE-GAME QUOTES

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

Zenit is a very serious opponent, well-coached with the players who are very competitive. They have crystal ideas of what are they doing on the court. First of all, they are very athletic, tall and ready to fight on boards. The fact that they added some size [in the offseason] makes them really dangerous on boards and on the block in general. They do have versatility in their game and that's a team that fights until the end. We need to respect it and we do respect them a lot. We are in a good mode, we had good overall performance in Istanbul even though we god have ended the game more smoothly. We know that EuroLeague is a marathon, and we've just started, played just two games and we have very important games ahead of us. This is how we treat a game against Zenit. We played them already [in the preseason], this will be our fourth meeting. We know that they are very serious team and organization. It requires full concentration and high motivation from us. The mindset is there.

Ivan Ukhov, CSKA guard:

We are in a good, high spirits after the victory in Turkey. Getting ready for Zenit. This is a very serious opponent, we are expecting a difficult game. We met many times during the preparation period, we know each other well. This is a good shooting team with a lot of great performers who attack after screens. You need to be ready for this. They also added power under the basket, with Jordan Mickey coming from Khimki. We have to contain him and be ready to fight for rebounds.

"RELATIVITY" CONNECTIONS

Andrey Zubkov was a teammate of Nikita Kurbanov in Lokomotiv-Kuban during 2014-15 season.

Alexey Shved was a teammate of Zenit's Sergey Karasev and Jordan Mickey at Khimki Moscow Region last season. Shved and Mickey have also been teammates at Khimki in the 2018-19 season, while Shved and Karasev have also been there in the 2019-20 season.

Shved and Zubkov were teammates at Khimki for two seasons, from 2017 to 2019.

Zenit guard Dmitry Kulagin played for CSKA in the youth categories and professionally from 2015 to 2017. He helped the team win the 2016 EuroLeague title.

Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Nikola Milutinov were teammates at Olympiacos Piraeus for the first part of the 2019-20 season.

IMPORTANT NUMBERS

Johannes Voigtmann has made at least 1 three-point shot in 14 of his last 15 games.

Iffe Lundberg has made at least 1 three-pointer in 10 straight games.

Marius Grigonis made at least 1 three-point shot in eight of his last nine games.

Alexey Shved has made at least 1 three-pointer in 19 straight and 44 of his last 45 appearances.

Shved ranks ninth all-time with 420 three-point shots made for his career. Gianluca Basile is eighth with 421.

Shved ranks 12th all-time in scoring with 2,761 points. Kyle Hines of AX Armani Exchange Milan is 11th with 2,774 and counting.

Shved is tied with Ioannis Bourousis for 10th place all-time with 581 free throws made for his career. Kostas Sloukas of Olympiacos Piraeus is ninth with 590 and counting.

Shved needs 15 assists to reach 800 for his career.

Nikola Milutinov ranks eighth on the all-time list with 464 offensive rebounds. Bryant Dunston of Anadolu Efes Istanbul is seventh with 469 and counting.

Marius Grigonis is ranked second all-time in free throw accuracy at 92.5%.

PAST MATCHUPS

Wins-losses: 19-7 (4-0 in EuroLeague, 18-0 against Triumph Lyubertsy)

Games of the 2020-21 season:

18-Dec-2020. EuroLeague. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 83-65 (+18)
13-Feb-2021. VTB League. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 71-74 (-3)
30-Mar-2021. EuroLeague. Regular season. Zenit – CSKA: 74-86 (+12)
05-Apr-2021. VTB League. Regular season. Zenit – CSKA: 81-87 (-6)
17-May-2021. VTB League. Quarterfinals. Zenit – CSKA: 73-78 (+5)
19-May-2021. VTB League. Quarterfinals. Zenit – CSKA: 107-104 2ОТ (-3)
22-May-2021. VTB League. Quarterfinals. CSKA – Zenit: 96-82 (+14)
24-May-2021. VTB League. Quarterfinals. CSKA – Zenit: 85-71 (+14)

SHORT DOSSIER

Zenit St.Petersburg, Russia

Founded: 2014
Colors: dark-blue, white, light-blue
Homecourt: SIBUR Arena (7,120)
CEO: Alexander Tserkovny
Head coach: Xavi Pascual
Website: basket.fc-zenit.ru

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