From Barcelona to Moscow. For Olimpia, it is the second straight road game against a Final Four team and in this particular case it means facing a perennial, almost inevitable, Final Four team. Olimpia’s won four of its last five EuroLeague games including Tuesday’s make up game against Alba Berlin. During this span, Olimpia lost only to Real Madrid by a two points margin. CSKA, however, is coming off two wins during the last week and has taken three of the last four. Its offensive potential is unquestionable: the last three wins have been conquered by scoring at least 90 points. At home, its record is 7-2. The only losses coming from Fenerbahce and Unics Kazan. Last Monday, CSKA lost in St. Petersburg in a VTB League game, playing without Will Clyburn and Semen Antonov. It is also a tough team to defeat in close games: CSKA is 5-1 in games won or lost within 5 points and 4-1 in games ended within a 3-point margin. The game is scheduled to be played on Friday, 21 January, at 18:00, Italian time.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We obviously face one of the best teams in the EuroLeague, a very well-organized and deep team. For us it is important to do the best possible job against their offensive rebounders, especially Milutinov. Everything will start with paint protection and then move the ball offensively against their huge size”.
KYLE HINES – “It is an importante game for both teams, it’s important for the seedings and we play against a pretty good CSKA team. For us, we need to do well the things we know how to do, although we are coming off another tough game. For me personally, but I’m sure it is the same for Sergio Rodriguez and Coach Messina, this game is also an opportunity to see old friends and play in front of fans that really supported us. But it is an important game and we know what we are here for.”
THE REFEREES – Matej Boltauzer (Slovenia), Benjamin Jimenez (Spain), Gytis Vilius (Lithuania).
CSKA MOSCOW – CSKA Moscow, which since 2003 has qualified for every Final Four edition of the new EuroLeague except for the 2010/11 season, has been coached by the Greek Dimitris Itoudis since 2014. Currently, he is eighth for EuroLeague games coached (252) and fifth for games won (182). The player in the best shape is Daniel Hackett: the third-best Italian scorer in the EuroLeague history behind Gigi Datome and Gianluca Basile, is in his fourth season at CSKA Moscow and has been MVP of the round for two straight rounds. Currently, he averages 7.7 points per game, but during the last two games he has scored 44 points combined, shooting 70.0 percent from three. In addition to Hackett, the rotation of four guards is formed by Alexey Shved (11.2 points and 3.6 assists per game), Iffe Lundberg (8.7 points per game) and Marius Grigonis (7.8 points per game, 41.0 percent from three). The forwards are Will Clyburn (15.0 points and 5.4 rebounds per game), the 2019 Final Four MVP, a multidimensional player who can also bring the ball up, and Nikita Kurbanov, who is the only CSKA player who has always started. The starting power forward is the Georgian star, Toko Shengelia (12.7 points, 4.5 rebounds per game, he was Shields’ teammate in Vitoria) and the center is Serbian seven-footer Nikola Milutinov (5.9 points, 6.2 rebounds per game). The big men rotation also relies on Joel Bolomboy (6.1 points, 4.6 rebounds per game) and the German shooter Johannes Voigtmann (9.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, 73.7 percent from two, 40.8 percent from three).
HISTORY vs CSKA – When Olimpia won its first European championship in Bologna in 1966, beating Slavia Prague, in the semifinalist was CSKA who surrendered to the team coached by the legendary Cesare Rubini 68-57 with 20 points from the great Bill Bradley and 15 from sharp-shooting center Massimo Masini. That marked the first time in history that Olimpia faced the mighty Russian team. The all-time record between those two teams is 11-6 in favor of CSKA counting only the modern-day EuroLeague (since 2000). Adding the pre-EuroLeague era, in addition to the 68-57 of the Bologna 1966 semifinals, there are four more games played during the 1982/83 and in 1996/97 seasons, all of them won by the home team. The total is therefore 13-9 for CSKA Moscow. During the 2008/09 season, Olimpia managed to beat CSKA 80-79 at the Mediolanum Forum. David Hawkins scored 20 points and Luca Vitali added 17. Two years later, Olimpia defeated CSKA twice, 88-73 in Moscow, and then 71-65 in Milan. In the Moscow game 23 points were scored by Olek Pecherov and 15 were added by Morris Finley. In the Milan game, Ibby Jaaber scored 18 points and Stefano Mancinelli added 15. After that win, Olimpia lost 11 consecutive times to CSKA. Last year, after losing after an overtime, 91-87, in Milan, Olimpia has won in Moscow, 84-76, with 32 points from Kevin Punter and 14 from Shavon Shields, and in Cologne, prevailed 83-73 with 14 points and six assists by Sergio Rodriguez. In the Milan game, this year Olimpia won 84-74 with 17 points each for Sergio Rodriguez and Shavon Shields, 15 more were scored by Nicolò Melli.
THE HINES CONNECTION – Kyle Hines played for CSKA for seven seasons, winning the EuroLeague in 2016 and 2019, reaching the Final Four in all of his six seasons. He has also won the VTB League six times. In all, he played 218 EuroLeague games with 1,808 points scored and 949 rebounds grabbed for the team.
THE RODRIGUEZ CONNECTION – Sergio Rodriguez played for CSKA for two years, winning the VTB League twice and the 2019 EuroLeague championship. He played 71 EuroLeague games with the Moscow powerhouse, with 852 points scored and 237 assists made. His 13.8 points on average for the 2017/18 season is his career high in the EuroLeague.
THE HACKETT CONNECTION – Daniel Hackett played for two years in Milan between the 2013/14 and the 2014/15 season. He won the 2014 Italian league championship, playing along Nicolò Melli. At the end of his experience in Milan, he spent two years at Olympiacos and one at Bamberg, before moving to Moscow. For Olimpia he played 42 EuroLeague games scoring 10.5 points per game during the 2014/15 season.
THE MESSINA CONNECTION – Coach Ettore Messina spent six seasons on the CSKA Moscow bench: he led the team to the Final Four six times, winning the EuroLeague title in 2006 and 2008. He left CSKA in 2009 after four years, he returned in 2012 for two more seasons during which he always won the VTB League. In both 2006 and 2008 he was named EuroLeague Coach of the Year. His EuroLeague record as CSKA Moscow head coach is 123-33, 78.8 percent of games won. While at CSKA, he coached Nikita Kurbanov and Alexey Shved.
GAME NOTES – Sergio Rodriguez is nine assists shy of 1,500 for his career, a number surpassed so far only by Vassilis Spanoulis and Nick Calathes. He is currently fourth overall in the assist standing. Rodriguez has scored at least one three in nine consecutive games and 11 of his last 12. Kyle Hines is six offensive rebounds away from 700 career for his career. Only Felipe Reyes has crossed that threshold by reaching 705.
MELLI @ 100 – Kaleb Tarczewski is Olimpia’s all-time leader for EuroLeague appearances with 137 with 106 games started. Vlado Micov is second with 115. But Nicolò Melli just became the third ever to reach 100 appearances during the Alba home game. Melli is also the third-best rebounder and the 16th-best club scorer in the EuroLeague. His first EuroLeague game occurred against CSKA in Moscow, on 21 October 2010, a game that Olimpia won 88-73.
