Chance to rehabilitate
Very little time has passed since the previous meeting with Enisey, so the memories of the failure in Moscow are fresh. Today our team flew to Krasnoyarsk to try to smooth out those impressions...
Dangerous Enisey
It cannot be said that nothing foreshadowed the defeat in Megasport on March 20. It’s not even that the Moscow team is going through difficult times, it’s just that all the meetings with Enisey this season turned out to be stubborn. But the game itself left an unpleasant feeling: the team seemed to be in control, but literally failed in the last quarter offensively, scoring only one field goal.
At the same time, CSKA, in principle, coped relatively well with the championship’s top scorer Xavier Rathan-Mayes (25.4 points) - he scored only 21 points on 7 of 19 shooting, but could not stop the second option in Jovica Arsic’s team: Jeremiah Martin (17.9 points) scored 28. At the same time, CSKA graduate Vladimir Karpenko spent 25 minutes on the court, did not score any points, but finished the game with “+10” in the “plus-minus” column.
We don't count
The important victory over Lokomotiv-Kuban last Monday kept CSKA's place at the top of the standings, and UNICS' loss to Zenit on Friday made the red-and-blue team the sole leaders. This result also promises a significant twist in the last week of the regular season. Yes, if CSKA succeed in Krasnoyarsk and Kazan, they will finish first and secure home court advantage in the playoffs. But any failure will force to closely monitor other results and can lead to finishing in second or even third place.
“Obviously we know all the possibilities for the top teams to end up in the standings but we want to count on ourselves only, not looking back at our opponents,” CSKA head coach Emil Rajkovic said. “That means that we really want to win both remaining games, starting from Krasnoyarsk. We played bad in our last meeting in Moscow and we know what Enisey is capable of doing. We will be motivated to play hard and follow our plan.”
The team set off from the CSKA Track and Field Gym on Saturday morning, reached Sheremetyevo and flew to Krasnoyarsk by Aeroflot charter. Casper Ware, who is rehabilitating after an injury, and Nikita Mikhailovsky, who will work individually at the club facility, remain in Moscow.
Past match-ups
Win/Loss Ratio: 36-3
Game of the 2023-24 season:
03-Oct-2023. 1st stage. CSKA – Enisey: 73-64 (+9)
06-Dec-2023. 1st stage. Enisey – CSKA: 75-80 (+5)
20-Mar-2024. 2nd stage. CSKA – Enisey: 65-74 (-9)
Brief dossier
Enisey Krasnoyarsk
Founded: 1981
Colors: blue, white
Home arena: Arena-Sever (3,000 spectators)
Director: Vladimir Petrokovsky
Head Coach: Jovica Arsic
Website: www.basket-enisey.ru
Trophy case: 2006-07 SuperLeague B champion, 2011 Russian Cup bronze winner
