Not far from the site on a modest stool sat Arvydas Sabonis. The president of the “greens”, of course, is much more than a symbol for the club, but for fans who did not delve into the basketball “cuisine”, he served as a reminder of the glorious era of the 80s and 90s, marked by an incomparable confrontation. “Our massage therapist told us a lot about this,” young Tolya Kashirov smiled shyly at the TV camera, nodding towards Asker Barcho. Yeah, how ... You can’t describe this with any stories.
For a half to two decades, only the roar of the stands of the old Kaunas Sport Hale has not changed. Frantic fans drove the hosts ahead, making Ettore Messina seemingly not so impulsive to explode at the bench. After a couple of meaningful attacks, CSKA lost its speed in throws from a distance after a few screenings, albeit not so crazy, but completely ineffective. Quite successfully, the nominal playmaker David Vanterpool, who was falling under the ring, quickly got two fouls and ended up on the bench, the ball didn’t reach the “big” ball ... But the first shot of Matyaz Smodish's throw - in the 7th minute (!) - turned into an accurate three-pointer!
Before the first quarter had finished, Messina, seething with indignation, took a timeout and began to revive the terrible ghosts of Po-Ortez before the eyes of the players. After that, a light squad went to the site - with three defenders (Papaloukas, Langdon, Ponkrashov) and two generalists-forwards (Smodis, Kurbanov). The first experiment failed: the Muscovites lag increased to "-10".
This moment probably became a turning point in the match. The double-digit difference was created by the "grandfather" Tanoka Bird, who in a row fell from the middle and out of the ring. Messina was compelled to "weight", and the course of the meeting changed. Alexei Savrasenko began to methodically clean the shields, and David Andersen, returning the optimal form, scored 9 points in about a ten-minute segment, won by CSKA with a score of 29:13.
Here, Messina more often allowed herself to applaud the wards. Their attacks were deliberately slow (in order to hinder high-speed young rivals), more meaningful, and the game against the “zone” resembled a Moscow meeting with “Benetton”: after lightning sweeps around the perimeter even incredible balls flew into the ring, fired from a jump through his hands. The Italian coach, who was not greedy for fame, probably with a kind word recalled the individual skills of snipers Trajan Langdon and especially J. Arden Holden - the leader of the Russian national team remembered the ability to get on time as never before.
Before the beginning of the final segment, Smodis, with a stern expression on his face, said something to the companions gathered in a circle. Whatever it was, it acted like a spell. For about seven minutes, “Zalgiris” could not score a point under the heavy press of the defense of CSKA, and the first goal from the game in the last period the Lithuanians flew into the ring only 2.21 before the siren. By that time, the guests already had “+14”, and Savrasenko, who had played out, running away from the tired Bird, even allowed himself to bounce and stick the ball from above.
At once the gloomy coach Ainars Bagatskis could only regret that he couldn’t throw the president of the club into a fight with a strong-willed gesture.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH