It seems to be a long time gone when the confrontation between Moscow and Kaunas evoked emotions other than bouts of nostalgia. Back In The USSR, which sounded under the arches of USK CSKA before the match, seemed to be a simple entertainment, a reminder of the glorious years, devoid of motivational coloring. Why, then, was the voice of the head coach of the “green” Rimantas Grigas so strangled? “We didn’t want to give you victory,” the thesis from the coach of the outsiders of the group for some reason didn’t sound funny.
Zalgiris had little room for maneuver. Without Marko Popovic, the “motor of the team," as Grigas called him, the guests clearly lacked fire. CSKA except that at first they could not figure it out with Tanoka Bird and Jonas Machiulis, who deftly put the case under someone else's ring and repeatedly received the ball in a convenient position. Ettore Messina was even forced to replace Alexei Savrasenko, who continues to surprise this season - he did not keep up with the guys whom his own coach calls “big” with a malicious smile. The aging center Byrd barely exceeds two meters ...
Kaunas were even close to winning a quarter. But Thomas Van den Spiegel and David Andersen came out very successfully from the bench. The first one awarded the rivals with a pair of “pots”, and managed to do it under someone else’s ring, and the second one flashed a pair of “treshki”, after which the difference in score quickly grew in favor of Muscovites. Andersen was further noted by key balls: almost all attempts to chase “Zalgiris” were interrupted by his firm (no, more correctly - soft) hand. Moreover, I also had to work out for Smodis: Matyaz at the very beginning of the third quarter, holding on to his back, went to the bench ...
The guests made only two attempts to chase. The first - at the start of the second period - was probably followed by the most beautiful segment in the game, made by Theodoras Papaloukas. Theo gave out some gorgeous passes: the transfer was especially good behind the back, exactly into the hands of Savrasenko, who had burst under the shield after a protracted attack, which included a couple of rebounds in the attack. In addition, the Greek point guard managed to score twice from above. But his good mood seemed to be overwhelmed. After a long break, three consecutive long-range balls flew into the ring through Papas’s hands, and in an attack, a flinching veteran suddenly committed incomprehensible actions a couple of times. His replacement with Anton Ponkrashov was a revelation - it’s hard to even imagine that with the participation of Papaloukas, CSKA looked helpless. However, it was precisely at these moments that the algiris carried out the pursuit of number two, which crowned the “three” Mantas Kalnetis - 56:57, the guests were ahead!
“I didn’t especially hurry with a timeout,” Messina will later say. “I hoped that the team would do it myself. But Ponkrashov played very worthy. When he left, we quickly fell to -1, but when Anton sat down to rest, we were already ahead by 15 points. " It’s even strange to hear the praise of “Baryshnikov” from the lips of a strict CSKA mentor.
By the way, I was pleased not only by Ponkrashov, but also by Nikita Kurbanov. “8 points, 4 rebounds, not a single mistake and a very solid game in defense,” - looking at the protocol he described the performance of striker Messina. “I would have such a Kurbanov,” agreed Grigas.
Returning to Ponkrashov: he did not show anything extraordinary, the statistics turned out to be modest - only 3 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. And that's great! For once, the young defender did not force events, focusing on reliability and assistance to experienced partners. It was as if he became the embodiment of David Vanterpool, treating the back and thigh, a dim, but useful point guard.
Two injuries immediately overtook the army, became the reason for what I really wanted to call experiments with the composition. But, as the coach of “Zalgiris” correctly noted, from the rearrangement of basketball players the winning style of CSKA does not change. It is nice that the youth game moved to such a conclusion.
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH
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