Faster than basques

CSKA vs. Laboral Kutxa (Vitoria): 99-90 (+9)

CSKA: De Colo (17 + 8 as), Teodosic (18 + 5 as + 3 to), Fridzon (4 + 4 rb), Nichols (3 + 3 rb + 2 bs + 3 to + 5 pf), Jackson (5 + 5 rb + 6 as), Weems (22 + 8 rb + 3 to + 4 pf), Vorontsevich (13 + 5 rb + 4 bs + 5 pf), Kaun (12 + 6 rb + 2 bs), Hines (5 + 4 rb + 2 bs)…

Laboral Kutxa: Adams (9 + 4 rb + 6 to), James (19 + 3 rb + 4 as + 3 to), Iverson (10 + 5 rb + 2 bs), Causeur (10 + 5 rb + 6 as + 5 st), Shegelia (11 + 5 rb), Tillie (14 + 5 rb), Begic (6 + 8 rb + 3 st + 2 bs), San Emeterio (2), Hansbrough (3 rb + 4 pf), Bertans (9 + 3 rb)…

We got another win and it is important to start 2-0 in Top 16. On this stage of competition every possession counts, every point and rebound are important. We opened the game with good offense transition; we improved our defense in the second quarter, improved in protecting our boards and created good point difference. Still the third quarter was probably one of the worse for us this season. Our opponents played more aggressive defense, they denied our entry passes, we had to rely on our ball-handlers. Laboral Kutxa is a competitive team, which plays high-tempo basketball after coaching change. We managed to beat them by better offensive quality, individually and as a team. Still we are concerned about our defense, and this is something we will work on in the next days. The margin in the end could be bigger but we made some mistakes. I would like to congratulate my team and to thank the fans who were really loud tonight.

It’s very good that we won today although we missed a lot of chances to score. I think that our opponents believed that they could win the game and they were close to do that. Maybe if they have a bit more desire it definitely happen. We need to make right conclusions.

We should not let anyone especially in Top 16 to make more than 20 offensive rebounds because once we can pay for that. We started the game really good. To compete in Top 16 we have not to give up till the last minute but today our third quarter was bad.