Derby in silence

Our team to play its next VTB League game at Khimki.

Pre-game breakdown

No fans allowed for the Moscow Region sports events, so the hosts moved the game to Khimki from Mytishchi.

The Army Men rested in Athens after the win against PAO and spent Saturday to go back home. The team practiced with a full roster on Sunday night.

Khimki missed 4 players due to injuries in their previous game (at Fenerbahce): Sergey Monia, Devin Booker, Egor Vialtsev and Stefan Jovic.

Pre-game quotes

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

It’s a derby, Khimki is our rival so it’s definitely a special game. They haven’t change their strategy much, though they added some good and experienced players so we expect it to be a difficult game.

Close relations

Khimki players Alexey Shved, Sergey Monia, Evgeny Voronov and Egor Vialtsev all played for CSKA. Shved played parts of seven seasons for CSKA between 2005 and 2012 and won the 2008 EuroLeague with the club. Monia spent three seasons with CSKA and Vialtsev two. Rimas Kurtinaitis played for CSKA in the 1981-82 season.

Nikita Kurbanov and Voronov defended Lokomotiv-Kuban colors in 2014-15 season.

Pathes of Mike James and Greg Monroe crossed at Phoenix Suns in 2017-18 season.

James and Dairis Bertans played for Olimpia Milan in 2018-19.

Janis Timma was a teammate of 4 Army Men: he played for Baskonia with Toko Shengelia and Johannes Voigtmann (2017-18) and for Olympiacos with Janis Strelnieks and Nikola Milutinov (2018-19).

Strelnieks and Bertans both played for Ventspils in 2009-10 season.

Will Clyburn and Bertans debuted in EuroLeague for Darussafaka in 2016-17 season.

Past matchups

Wins-losses: 94-20.
CSKA biggest win: 104-64 (+40) (2002-03 Superleague Regular Season)
CSKA biggest loss: 85-67 (-18) (2007-08 Russian Cup Final)

Games of 2019-20 season:
17-Oct-2019. EuroLeague. Regular Season. CSKA – Khimki: 99-86 (+13)
06-Jan-2020. VTB League. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 96-80 (-16)
30-Jan-2020. EuroLeague. Regular Season. Khimki – CSKA: 69-78 (+9)

Short dossier

Khimki Moscow Region
Founded: 1997
Colors: blue, yellow
Home court: Moscow Region Basketball Center (3,500), Arena Mytishchi (7,000)
President: Dmitry Golubkov
CEO: Pavel Astakhov
Head coach: Rimas Kurtinaitis
Website: www.bckhimki.ru
Trophy Case: 2-time Eurocup winners (2012, 15), Russian Cup winner (2008), VTB United League champion (2011), 9-time Russian League runner-up (2006, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18), Russian League bronze winner (2007), Russian Cup finalist (2006), FIBA-Europe Cup finalist (2006), Eurocup finalist (2009)