Translated material
Derby without extras
All announced basketball players played for Dynamo and CSKA
In the third match of the semi-final series of the Russian Championship among men's teams, the capital's army team at the site of their fellow countrymen Dynamo in Krylatskoye defeated the "blue and white" - 85:73. Ettore Messina's team has one step left to take in order to gain the right to participate in the confrontation for the “gold”. The fourth game between Moscow clubs will take place today and again in the same hall.Yesterday, head coach Dusan Ivkovic's starting five of Dynamo featured exclusively Russian players on the back line - Dmitry Domani, Sergei Bykov and Dmitry Khvostov. From the very beginning of his work in our country, even when he came to CSKA five years ago, Ivkovic openly made it clear that he sympathized more with the foreign players. But here he could not resist. The homegrown basketball players had a really good time in the previous meeting with the “red-blues”. Khvostov played boldly and youthfully bold beyond his age, Bykov stunned his opponent with a series of four three-point shots.
Both coaches made many substitutions in Sunday's match, trying to maintain a high pace of play. It is an extremely rare case when, in matches of such intensity and significance, all 24 announced basketball players received time on the court. Moreover, at Dynamo, each of the fighting dozen scored points.
CSKA helmsman Messina drew conclusions from the defeat in the second game of the series and forced his players to guard the opponent more tightly on the perimeter, not allowing them to shoot from behind the six-meter line without resistance. The debut of the meeting for the army team turned out to be quite successful, in contrast to the nightmare start three days ago. In the 7th minute, after Trajan Langdon's hit, the nominal visitors were in the lead by eight points. At the end of the quarter, Lazar Popandopulo and Yuri Vasiliev reduced the gap to 21:24.
In the second period, Messina's replacement of Anton Ponkrashov with Zakhar Pashutin worked. The CSKA captain has not been appearing on the court very often lately, but here his appearance could not have come at a better time - Zakhar took it upon himself to shoot from long range and increased CSKA's lead from six to nine points. A mistake by Dynamo's Boyan Popovic led to a quick break for Venezuelan Oscar Torres, who hit the hoop from above - 40:31. The Blue and White scored only ten points in this ten-minute period.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Langdon and Holden beat Dynamo with the same weapons that the “blue and white” army team used in the previous meeting. The Americans accurately attacked from behind the arc with an interval of a minute, increasing the advantage of the reigning champion to 52:33. When the match was already effectively lost, Tyquon Dean took the initiative. The American who came to Dynamo during the season (he replaced injured compatriot Travis Hansen) began to attack the CSKA ring at every opportunity and eventually became the top scorer of the match - 19 points.
“After the defeat in the second match, the support of the club’s leaders was important to the CSKA players and coaches,” Messina said at a press conference. “And I have to thank them for understanding the situation.” They didn’t put pressure on us, they said encouraging words, and we again proved our class.”
Ivkovic complained about the pressure of responsibility in front of his stands: “My players tried to do their best, they really wanted to win on home court. But it is difficult to fight against CSKA under psychological pressure. We had a bad second quarter and lost control of the ball. I’d like to note that CSKA’s centers are in excellent shape; Langdon looks great. In the last ten minutes, I decided to release young basketball players who had accumulated more energy.”
Results. Russian Championship. Semi-final. “Dynamo” (Moscow) – CSKA – 73:85 (series score 1:2), “Khimki” – UNICS (Kazan) – 89:80 (series score 1:2).