CSKA will face Avtodor in the Quarterfinals up to 3 wins.
Series Schedule
Game 1 – March 31, 20:00 (Moscow time) in Moscow
Game 2 – April 2, 14:00 (Moscow time) in Moscow
Game 3: April 5, 18:00 (Moscow time) in Saratov
Game 4 – April 7, 18:00 (Moscow time) in Saratov (*)
Game 5 – April 10, 20:00 (Moscow time) in Moscow (*)
* – if necessary
Regular season
CSKA: 1st place (30 wins and 2 losses)
Avtodor: 8th place (15 wins and 17 losses)
Rivalry
CSKA and Avtodor met only at the first stage of the regular season and played 2 games. The first was on October 23 in Saratov, where the hosts often fought with the Army team. But not this time. CSKA steadily built up the lead and won – 102:75.
CSKA hosted Avtodor on November 23, winning by the same 27 points and with a similar score – 103:76. Shved and Milutinov were again good, making a double-double each. Samson Ruzhentsev scored 21 points in 17 minutes from the bench. The Moscow team got their 12th win in a row since the start of the season, but, as we now know, the streak has continued.
The rivalry history score is 16:1, CSKA led.
Key factor of the Series
Alexey Shved health
CSKA leader has been recently recovering from an injury and missed more than a month. Shved recently said that after a long period in the gym he had already started training and running. According to CSKA president Andrey Vatutin, Alexey should be back for the Playoffs, but the timing and shape remains questionable.
CSKA is favored to win the Series even without their star, but the absence of such an important player will have a big impact on the team’s play and increase Avtodor’s chances of givign a challenge to the Army team.
Heroes
CSKA
The Army team started the season with a record 24 wins. The symbol of that run was Nikola Milutinov. The Serbian bigman is the key player in the paint on both ends. He’s scoring, controlling the rebounding and closing down the paint for his opponents. Milutinov is averaging a double-double (in just 23 minutes) and his efficiency rating is bigger that his opponents have. In the first game against Avtodor, Nikola scored 16+8 with 5 of 7 in 19 minutes. In the second, he scored 19+11 in 23 minutes with 4 of 7 from the game.
Casper Ware is noticeable and important for CSKA. In 4 games without Alexey, the American guard averaged 16.5 points and 6.2 assists, while against Pari Nizhny Novgorod he added a game-winning three-pointer.
The series with the Saratov team will be a special one for Emil Rajkovic. Most of last season the coach was in Avtodor. He achieved a lot there. Rajkovic managed to move Avtodor to the VTB League top. Rajkovic team also played decent in EuroCup. In March, Avtodor management announced that they were parting ways with most of the foreigners, including the coaching staff.
Avtodor
Malik Newman is the highest-scoring player of the League this season and the team’s offenisve leader (18.9 points). CSKA will definitely give the American guard the most attention. Newman’s ability to pull off one miracle in a single game will largely determine how they’ll do against the best team of the regular season.
Avtodor prefer to play with an energetic frontcourt and shooting point forwards. Danilo Nikolic fits that concept perfectly. Second in Avtodor in scoring and leader in rebounding, Nikolic was evident in both games of the season against CSKA: 11+8+3 in Saratov and 16+8+4 in Moscow. We can expect Danilo to be active in the Quarterfinals as well.
Perhaps Avtodor’s biggest challenge in the series with CSKA will be guarding Milutinov. An important role in that process should go to Evgeniy Minchenko – the only Saratov team center. If Evgeniy does well, his role should increase significantly. And Minchenko can be effective for sure, which he proved in Moscow game: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 5 blocks with 6 of 7 from the game.
Retrospect
The rivalry between Moscow and Saratov is Russian basketball classic. The rivalry began in the second half of the 1990s, when Avtodor became CSKA key rival. The Volga team won the regular season in those glorious times, but failed to get the title.
Avtodor president Vladimir Rodionov has his meetings with CSKA marked in red on his calendar. The leader dreams of defeating the Army superteam and remembers the tension of classic games between the teams. The Volga team boss will surely try to give this mood to his players.
There’s very little chance for success in a series against the dominant Army team over any team that made the 8th place in the regular season. But nostalgia and a reference to basketball classics help the rivalry between CSKA and Avtodor, and that’s the first thing that comes to mind. The Saratov team may has little chance of advancing to the Semifinals, but they’ll do everything to remember how they battled against CSKA and try not to let them down, giving fans a chance to watch a good basketball.
