Challenge after challenge
No days off, no holidays
The defeat from the main competitor in the fight for leadership, an incredible 21 points from Nenad Dimitrijevic in the last quarter of Tuesday's game vs UNICS, meant one thing: the red-blues would have no time to rest. Already on Wednesday, the team watched the video and had normal practice.
And on Thursday, having been forced to give up the opportunity to celebrate March 8 with family and friends, the team spent the entire day on the road. Having departed from the CSKA Track and Field facility at 10 am, the team boarded an Aeroflot charter in Sheremetyevo at noon, flew to Stavropol, boarded a bus there, and reached the hotel in Krasnodar at 9 pm.
And on Friday, everyone, with the exception of Casper Ware, who was recovering from foot surgery, practiced on the Basket Hall floor.
It's time to recharge
Both meetings with Lokomotiv this season turned out to be dramatic. The Krasnodar team proved twice that they are an inconvenient opponent for CSKA. In both games the spectators had something to see. At Megasport, the hosts cut a double-digit deficit twice, took the lead in the end, but lost by a yough three from Jalen Barford. At the Basket Hall, the Muscovites had already earned a 16-point lead in the first half, then lost it, dropped to “-9”, heroically caught up and fell just short in the end.
“CSKA and Loko are the teams that know each other much better than any other pair of opponents,” CSKA head coach Emil Rajkovic said. “This will be our 12th meeting of the past year, since March of 2023, and it is pretty difficult to expect anything new. They added Ndour recently and that means that Loko improved toughness and rebounding, which was already their main strengths. As usually the game will require maximum effort and game plan execution for us, and the fans may enjoy another interesting game.”
This season, the Krasnodar team is a team with a positive balance in meetings with the league leaders. Alexander Sekulic's team had a good chance of defeating UNICS last week, even despite the absence of the injured Devon Akoon-Purcell, their top scorer (17.1 points).
Past matchups
Win-loss ratio: 69-17,
in Moscow: 37-6, in Rostov: 9-1, in Krasnodar: 22-9, on the neutral court (Berlin): 1-0.
Games of the 2023-24 season:
12-Nov-2023. CSKA – Lokomotiv-Kuban: 88-91 (-3)
13-Jan-2024. Lokomotiv-Kuban – CSKA: 89-85 (-4)
Brief dossier
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, Russia
Founded: 1946
Colors: red, green, white
Home court: Basket Hall (7,500)
President: Andrey Vedishchev
Interim head coach: Aleksandr Sekulic
Website: www.lokobasket.com
Trophy case: Euroleague bronze winner (2016), EuroCup winner (2013), 2-times VTB United League runner-up (2013, 2023), BEKO PBL bronze winner (2012), Eurochallenge runner-up (2011), FIBA Europe Cup runner-up (2005), Russian Cup winner (2018)
