The derby could not finish differently

Khimki Moscow region vs. CSKA: 92-95 (+3)

Khimki: Rice (24), Shved (12 + 4 as), Dragic (20 + 5 rb), Augustine (4 + 7 rb + 5 st), Boone (2 + 4 rb), Koponen (10 + 5 as), Il’nitskiy (2), Monya (7 + 4 as + 3 to + 4 pf), Honeycutt (11 + 7 rb)…

CSKA: De Colo (24 + 3 rb + 5 as + 6 to), D.Kulagin (4), Teodosic (19 + 4 rb + 7 as + 4 pf), Fridzon (11 + 3 rb + 4 pf), Jackson (17 + 5 rb), Korobkov (4), Vorontsevich (5 + 4 rb + 4 to), Khryapa (8 + 7 rb + 4 as + 2 bs), Hines (3 + 4 pf)…

Congratulations to the team, I am proud of it. Not only today, but in the course of the season. We have repeatedly faced with opponents who played not only aggressive, but hostile, brutal. Today Nikita went to the hospital with a broken nose, and in that episode he was called for offensive foul. This season Jackson had fractured facial bones, Khryapa broke his hand twice. This team refuses to lose. We faced a great team like Khimki with players talented individually, well-coached, with great club organization. I am proud that we have won this series 3-0. Nevertheless, with all these injuries, I feel that I should talk about it. We do not teach the players to act dirty. Aggressive – yes, basketball wins with aggressive plays. But not dirty. We played the game better, despite the fact that Khimki had perhaps their best game in the series. They could win, and would have deserved victory. But we defended better in clutch moments. We expected that the opponents will try to use transition as the best part of their game. And we defended well. We had problems in the second quarter. Yet the outcome of the third, in which we scored 31 points after allowing 33 in the previous period, resulted in a psychological lift, which helped us in the fourth quarter. I think the Russian basketball can be proud of how the teams play in one of the strongest European leagues. In addition, the fans created a wonderful atmosphere, and I want to thank them, especially, of course, fans of CSKA.