In Russia, it has long been customary to guess at Christmas. But before the past weekend everything was clear and without fortune-telling: before us - the future semifinals of the championship of Russia. So far, everything has come to the point that CSKA will finish in 1st place, Khimki in 4th place, and how the remaining leading lines of Dynamo and UNICS will be distributed there is not the point. Favorites defined. So the time has come to boldly look into the honest eyes of the giants of the Super League.
What is good for the grandees ...
Despite the periodic “marriage in production,” CSKA defense is still the best in Europe. The truths of the voiced postulate are not particularly hindered by the memories of the dizzying failure in Kazan, and the traced tendency to the team's early complacency to achieve an impressive gap (as an example, a duel with Neapolitan "moles"). An alarming bell for Ettore Messina could be the first half of Saturday's meeting, when the unbelievable Khimki sent 40 points to the Euroleague champions basket. But no, sincere conversation in a long break - and the intrigue is killed. 22: 8 in the third quarter with an excellent safety net and grandmaster team defense. It is pleasant that among the blacksmiths of the victorious backlog of “+20” there was a bursting zeal to shame the critics of Ponkrashov. There is no doubt that soon the amazingly gifted Anton will reveal to the fans the reasons for the increased attention from the coach. Since the signing of Khryapa and Moni in 2002, red-blue people have not appeared more talented Russians. Other advantages of CSKA are the presence of the Game with a capital letter, the best coach of Europe Messina, the brightest constellation of legionnaires in the Super League, the opening of the season Savrasenko. Trampled by Alexei in the weekend, the golden Olympian Volkoviski added to the rich list of victims of the progressing center.
The most powerful feature of modern Khimki is the legendary bench that knows no end and edge. Moreover, it turns out that its extensibility and size are not subject to the will of man. For example, according to the amusing confession of coach Sergey Elevich, a trinity from Petersburg fell on him. It’s scary to even think where Khimki would have fallen if it weren’t for the good hunk from the late Dynamo. McCarthy, Veremeenko and Lampe not only came to court, but became key figures and pulled more than one match on their own shoulders. If not for them, the question of continuing the struggle for the ULEB Cup would have long been removed.
But for UNICS, he did not rise even as a joke. The Lithuanian invasion of Kazan so far meets the best expectations. Antanas Sireyka picked up the accessories to his taste and, it seems, was not mistaken with most of the main components for the tactical scheme of the “throwing” quintet that he chose. Forever young and accurate Shtombergas (a fantastic percentage of hit three-pointer in the ULEB Cup - 75!) Successfully complements the American shooter Stevenson; The reunited brothers Lavrinovichi and Meshcheryakov interact perfectly, who, however, lack order in order to repulse their dimensional opponents. So yesterday, UNICS lost the shield to Dynamo, the worst Euroleague team.
According to the plan of Dynamo coach Dusan Ivkovic, the blue-and-white wormhole in the three-second zone should soon disappear, thanks to the return of the regulars of the infirmary Papadopoulos and Raichevich. Whist is gaining over the last matches of Popovich, who, although he lacks point guard talents, can’t refuse the ability and desire to plow on the defensive. Ceased to look like a foreign body in the team Monya, pleased with the development of Vasiliev and Tails. But the individual successes of Dynamo were noted at the dawn of the season. Another thing is fundamentally important - the last two meetings have shown that the Muscovites are having the same team game, in which Papadopoulos traditionally acts as the cornerstone. But now moving around the site of his partners looks much more coordinated and meaningful.
... What the grandees have
It seems that CSKA has no obvious problems with the roster. Nevertheless, it is even difficult to imagine what difficulties a hypothetical injury to Savrasenko might cause Messina (endless “pah-pah-pah”). Given the limit, the coach will either have to leave one of the priceless back-line performers out of the application, or make a serious and very risky bet on Kurbanov. The Italian, who was tough in reviews, said briefly about the game of the young Russian with Khimki: “Nikita had an excellent training the day before. And he simply disappeared into the match. ” Unfortunately, in the current season such an annoying transformation is taking place with the forward with an unenviable systematicity. Andersen’s form, which is disturbing for many, is far from ideal (the “hockey” indicator “plus-minus” of an Australian against visitors from the Moscow region - “-14” ...) seems to be a working and fixable moment.
The quality of basketball wards Elevich noticeably inferior to competitors. Khimki’s lack of an understandable main idea (such as a game from defense at CSKA, a game from Papadopoulos at Dynamo, a game from snipers at UNICS) is not striking. The blurry style and fuzzy forms of tactical drawing of the Moscow region darlings have long been accustomed to. Too much at Khimki is tied to the pre-retirement (68 years for two) duet of playmakers Booker - Pozzzecco, which has almost complete freedom of action. Throughout the review meeting, Holden was eating them with visible appetite for both cheeks. In such cases, in the Moscow region there comes an hour of lone heroes. On Saturday, for example, "went" with McCarthy. Due to his courage, which poured out 16 points before the equator of the match, Khimki for the time being did not let CSKA forward. But as soon as the army team “turned on” seriously on the defensive - like everyone else, write letters. Symptomatic moment. Since the team defense is not peculiar to the teams of Elevich, a prolonged loss of rhythm in an attack most often turns into a disappointing sentence: the match is lost.
UNICS, whose program code contains an algorithm to avoid loss of goal-scoring taste (due to an excess of wonderful “truckers”), yesterday unexpectedly ran into a temporary “drought”. But, most importantly, Kazan met with their reflection: Dynamo flew the starting quarter in one breath, six shots were accurately shot from behind the arc. UNICS “swam” and left the state of the groggs too late. An intelligent playmaker with skills in organizing a positional attack could be useful here. But there are none! Samoilenko, unfortunately, has not been given, and Cleves is frankly bewildered - the real potential of the American looks a mystery behind seven seals. Another flaw of the idols of Tatarstan is a short “Russian shop”.
“Achilles' heel” “Dynamo” - not in compatriots. With them, just a complete order. The trouble with blue and white is the instability and indispensability of Papadopoulos. Fotsis and Popovich, Monya and Gill - for each of them to give two or three matches at a high level is already an achievement. Until recently, it was extremely difficult to predict the outcome of almost any fight of the obstinate collective of Ivkovich simultaneously with the opponent and himself. The game “Dynamo” until now was based only on the gusts of individuals - a complete picture emerged only in January.
Nikita GOLOVANOV