CSKA defeats MBA on the road and extends the winning streak to 18 games — 92:75 (22:18, 24:30, 29:7, 17:20)
Game progress
The Army team was 1 win away from repeating the United League high — 18 wins in a row. But to achieve this result, necessary to beat MBA. The newcomers was at the 4th place, having won 3 games in a row.
If in the first Moscow Derby CSKA removed all questions about winning in the first half, then this time the game was tighter. Alexey Shved and Nikola Milutinov returned and made first points of the game. But MBA rotation managed to quickly equalize the score — Daniil Kasatkin had good segment. CSKA offense stoped and the hosts even took the lead by 6 points, but then Shved-Milutinov duo started to work again. The first half ended with a minimal MBA lead — 48:46.
Key moment
However, already at the start of the third quarter, CSKA tried to get away from the opponent. The hosts could not guard 2 bigmen – Nikola Milutinov traditionally dominated the paint and Dejan Davidovac added threat with threes. Casper Ware also helped, but MBA offense completely fell apart. For the entire third quarter, the hosts scored only 3 times from the game without free-throws. By the beginning of the final quarter, CSKA was already leading with a 20-point difference.
Key factor
CSKA finally managed to play with healthy leaders — Alexey Shved missed the last game with Loko and Nikola Milutinov went on the floor for the last time on December 4 against UNICS. And CSKA duo immediately demonstrated effectiveness with 34 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.
Facts
In this game, the Army team surpassed Khimki in the number of wins at the start of the season, which had been since 2014. And if CSKA wins in the next 2 games (against Enisey and Nizhny), then Emil Rajkovic team will hold a new biggest League winning streak in the history — 20 wins. The previous one (19) was set by the Army team in the 2015/2016 season.
Game Leaders
MBA: Daniil Kasatkin (28 + 3 steals), Makar Konovalov (11 + 5 assists)
CSKA: Nikola Milutinov (18 + 8 rebounds), Casper Ware (18 + 6 assists), Alexey Shved (16 + 5 rebounds + 8 assists), Dejan Davidovac (14)
Next game
MBA: road game versus UNICS on January 4
CSKA: road game against Enisey on January 6
