The most criticized coaches of the Super League teams (Moscow Dynamo and Khimki often get the indiscriminate actions in the attack), there’s nothing to blush for today. “Unless we missed too many light balls,” said the triumphant Dusan Ivkovic, smiling shyly. This evening from the side everything looked very easy, and the hall sighed over and over again with the noise of a huge whale or exploded with applause, like the stalls of the Bolshoi Theater. Only instead of “bravo” and “encore” were the names of the teams heard.
Probably even the fans of the hosts were happy for Sergey Monya - I really want the crisis in the life of the striker of the Russian national team to stop faster. He appeared on the site as if by accident - instead of Dmitry Domani, who received two fouls. Timofey Mozgov got up from the opposite bench just as forcedly (“We don’t have enough Russian basketball players!” Stated Sergey Elevich) after two fouls of Vladimir Veremeenko. And it was the young Khimki citizen who involuntarily became the co-author of Moni's awakening. In one of the episodes, Timofey slopped under the ring, and in a quick response, Sergey with a crazy swing hit the ball through the hands of poor Mozgov. After exchanging glances with colleagues, we began to discuss the possibility of naming the year we saw with slam dunk, but this did not end there.
“Sergey was especially concentrated today,” Ivkovich tried to explain what had happened. “But I warned that you could expect such a thing from Moni,” Elevich was upset. "Concentrated" Monya continued to amaze with firing from afar. Even before the big break, he abandoned four “three”, and he felt so confident that without a shadow of doubt he even fired a three-by-two counterattack.
18 points of the attacker before the break seemed to be enough reason to find him more often with passes, but the stubborn Boyan Popovich for some reason out of habit gave to the other side or climbed under the shield himself ... The same applies to the requested passes Antonios Fotsis, against whom Veremeyenko defended by fouls defended himself . In the second half, Monya found only three cases to do something: once he was ingeniously hit with an average with a deviation, the second time, imperiously forcing Yuri Vasiliev to take the guardian into a corner, went into the aisle and pleased the audience with another cool dunk, but in the third made a convenient discount to Vasiliev - another of the heroes of the fight.
“Khimki” also made a huge contribution to the Spectacle, which could not have become mediocre on the day when Alexander Petrenko, the stylized T-shirt of the deceased in the summer, was raised under the arches of the arena. Remembering Houston times, Oscar Torres easily and effectively took the game upon himself, Maciej Lampe with the Olajjuvint feints proved that he was not in vain chosen in the NBA draft and even froze on the New York bench, Veremeenko twisted the ball from the back of the ring in a chic jump, and “Balerun” Gianmarco Potsecco pleased with a bright “rainbow”, throwing opponents in the aisle along a high trajectory.
In a uniform shootout (teams sold 21 out of 39 “three rubles”: Torres - 4 out of 6, Booker - 2 out of 3, Hansen - 3 out of 6, Monya - 4 out of 4, Fotsis - 4 out of 5) the leadership passed back and forth 17 ( !) times. But at the finish, more calm remained with Dynamo. “White-blue”, even in the lightweight version, confidently winning the shield, the ending was held confidently. Gritting his teeth, Popovich constantly asked for penalties, but a minute before the siren he didn’t greed, playing “deuce” with Vasiliev - 84:88. It is symbolic that for the remaining time in the exchange of fantastic hits, the opponents scored another 11 points. The last word was left to Hansen, who clearly realized the free throws almost simultaneously with the siren.
Probably, if Ivkovich and Elevich were seated nearby at a press conference, they would say the key phrase “the teams showed a very high level” with a chorus and by no means an on-duty tone. Behind such a level is not a sin and wave to the roundabout. Who knows, you can hang around in traffic jams on Saturday evenings at the entrance to Khimki, not only for visiting a hypermarket.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH