No misfires in Istanbul

Anadolu Efes Istanbul vs. CSKA: 87-93 (+6)

Anadolu Efes: Thomas (16), Honeycutt (3 + 11 rb + 2 bs), Balbay (5), Brown (14 + 5 rb + 4 as + 3 bs + 3 to), Osman (7 + 4 rb + 3 to), Cotton (12 + 3 rb), Granger (7 + 8 as + 4 to + 5 pf), Omic (7 + 4 rb), Heurtel (7 + 7 as), Dunston (9 + 5 rb + 2 bs)…

CSKA: De Colo (26 + 4 rb + 6 as + 4 to), Teodosic (15 + 3 rb + 8 as), Fridzon (6), Jackson (2 + 5 as), Vorontsevich (8), Higgins (13 + 3 rb), Ayres (10 + 4 rb), Khryapa (6 + 4 rb), Kurbanov (1 + 3 rb), Hines (6 + 5 rb + 4 pf)…

Everybody had a huge contribution in our third win in a EuroLeague marathon. Analyzing this game, we managed to play pretty good in the first half. We controlled the game due to reading their defense, and going for their weak spots. We were sending their players to the free throw line, where they did not have a good day and were missing. Their bigs were 1 of 9 in the first half. And we took care of the ball. We were expecting that Efes would attempt to come back, they have a good team, they were 0-2 and it was their first home game. Efes is a great team, well coached and has great players, but with all due respect, we gave them a lot of gifts to come back from +14, and gave them opportunity to come back. Turnovers in the second half could not be answered. We could not stop them because those were steals that led Efes to 1-on-0 fast breaks for easy dunks. Efes had 17 offensive boards; that was not given just like that. We had a big fight. In the end, when there were crucial moments, my players found the way. We did defend well on switches, playing small ball with Kurbanov at four. We rebounded good when we were small. And we had a pretty big win on the road again.