Photo: red-army.ru
It is somehow hard to imagine Kazan without Stombergas. His faithful hand remained a reliable and uninterrupted weapon for the team of Antanas Sireika - Torres lost by the army still means less to them. But the Lithuanian UNICS coach did not complain - neither the veteran’s injury, nor the refereeing, which he could formally be unhappy with - the hosts did not receive a single foul in the second and final quarters of the match. Syreika, sitting in front of the reporters, was silent for a few seconds, as if choosing words and trying to calm her trembling fingers. And he said: "In the end, we did not have enough people who were ready to provide a result." There was everything in these words. And the longing for Shtombergas, and resentment for Krzysztof Lavrynovych, who didn’t play the match due to exhaustive fouls, and dissatisfaction with the heroes of the meeting in Kazan, Stevenson and Meshcheryakov, who had torn CSKA in December, and now scored 5 points for two.
In the end, Kazan did not have enough confidence that they would be treated fairly
True, some moments in the game of UNICS seemed strange anyway. Say, Meshcheryakov spent the most on the floor - 33 and a half minutes. His statistics are not brilliant, but his usefulness is good - the Belarusian worked hard to protect him. Under his supervision, the formidable Smodis did not score, it seems, not a single point. But in the end, the Slovenian turned out to be 27, many of whom were recruited at crucial moments of the match. Why get carried away by the “zone”, switching and using the perfectly attacking Lavrinovichi in the care of Matyazha, when the solution to his problem lay on the surface? In the end, Kazan did not have enough people, but at the same time, probably, the strength and confidence that they would be treated fairly. In several episodes, they literally stepped aside from opponents, fearing accidental contact. As a result, CSKA received light balls, like Pashutin's slam dunk, who literally opened the front door in a counterattack.
Zakhar's excellent game was perhaps the only factor that pleased those fans who like to follow the Russian basketball players. Because the rest of the collections that evening looked, frankly, it doesn’t matter. Holden shot at sparrows (1 out of 8), army youth helped (1 out of 7 on Ponkrashov, Kashirov and Kurbanov combined), and Savrasenko, in whose progress everyone believes, as God’s gentlemen, did nothing in defense or in attack. At UNICS, the reserve center Sokolov amazingly played, for 1.41 he managed to score five points on the site and make three fouls.
Messina made a strange argument in defense of his "big" (Andersen also did not shine), they say, it’s hot now, it’s hard for the guys. Therefore, the overwhelming part of playing time was spent by three defenders. Sometimes even four. “It’s even surprising that the match, in which much was to determine the game under the ring, was decided by the“ small ones, ”the Italian mentor spread his hands. Looks like we saw something fake. Would it be cooler on Monday?
Nikolai TSYNKEVICH