Big difference

Today “Spartak” played a game in Moscow against CSKA in the VTB United League Championship. The result turned out to be of little comfort. A loss with the margin of 21 points – 53-74. But a crammed schedule forces to pick and prioritize. In the light of key importance of the BEKO Professional Basketball League Russian Championship for “Spartak”, the emphasis is going to be placed on the national championship matches and Eurocup quarterfinals in March.

After a day off after the match with Buducnost, the intensive practices were on Thursday and Friday. This is denoted as a load training, when a team performs an enormous amount of work on the court and then the organism, having adapted to the load, is brought to its peak shape. The validity of this tactic is to be tested by the upcoming matches. But the results should not be written off solely on the account of the players' physical condition.

Zupan and Dragicevic who showed excellent game in the January Moscow match, this time were not as active. The “Spartak” players tried to stake on beyond the arc play as well - shot 21 “threes”, while hit 5 times. In a word, the offense once again left much to be desired, as in the previous matches.

The first quarter was lost by our team with the margin of 14 points - 10-24. The second and the third ones passed on equal terms with the host team. The last quarter was opened with Patrick Beverley's free throws - 53-44. Likewise, Mavrokefalidis made shots from this line - 53-46. It was looking well enough for “Spartak”, but then our players let Lavrinovic and then Kirilenko score in one minute - 57-46. Jurij Zdovc called for a time-out. Gordon punished unrealized attacks of “Spartak” two times. A couple of Beverley's favorite takes ended with nothing as well. Likhodey attempted to rectify the situation with beyond the arc shots, but the ball stubbornly refused to go into the basket. By contrast, CSKA secured an easy life for itself with a 11-0 spurt - 64-46.

In conclusion, 74-53 - a win for CSKA.

13 points and 4 rebounds were accumulated by Patrick Beverley. 9 points are by Miha Zupan. Lukas Mavrokefalidis netted 8 points and 6 rebounds. 8 points were scored by Valeriy Likhodey.

On Sunday “Spartak” sets out from Moscow to Turkey, where on Tuesday, February 28 the last match of Eurocup Top-16 will be held against “Banvit”.