CSKA Moscow vs. Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv

2021-22Regular SeasonRound 9

CSKA Moscow 74

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 73

November 11, 2021 CET: 18:00

Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

CSKA edges Maccabi to snap skid

CSKA Moscow snapped a three-game losing streak by fending off Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 74-73 in a thrilling back-and-forth showdown of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague powerhouses. The biggest lead for either team was 5 points and CSKA avoided losing its fourth straight game, which would have been the first time the club suffered such a streak during a season in league history. Iffe Lundberg scored 14 points to lead CSKA, which improved to 5-4. Joel Bolomboy added 12 points and 6 rebounds and Marius Grigonis chipped in 10 points in his first game back with the team since Round 1. Maccabi saw its five-game winning streak end to fall to 6-3 despite Derrick Williams pouring in 20 points and Ante Zizic collecting 16 points and 6 rebounds.

.@cskabasket put an end to the losing streak in a close game with @MaccabitlvBC #EveryGameMatters
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) November 11, 2021

Lundberg opened the scoring for the hosts with Williams going for 5 points at the other end. CSKA temporarily went ahead before Maccabi reeled off 6 points in a row to go up 6-11. Bolomboy tried to keep CSKA close with two baskets, but two Zizic scores had Maccabi up 12-17. Grigonis nailed a three-pointer to make it 17-19 after 10 minutes.

Grigonis hit a jumper to start the second quarter and even the game and Kenneth Faried free throws had the hosts back in front, 23-21. A Roman Sorkin three-point play gave Maccabi the lead again only to see CSKA get some defensive stops and execute on offense with an Alexey Shved three-pointer finishing off a 7-0 surge to open a 32-28 advantage. Zizic continued his strong game with a three-point play and Williams’s score pushed Maccabi back in front 33-35. The game went back and forth the rest of the first half and CSKA led 39-38 at the break.

After Lundberg started the second half, Scottie Wilbekin danced around the CSKA defense for a 41-42 lead. That was the first of seven straight lead changes with Williams scoring 4 in a row and James Nunnally’s free throws making it 47-52 - matching the biggest lead of the game thus far. After Angelo Caloiaro drained a triple for Maccabi, CSKA used free throws to stay close and Bolomboy’s triple had the hosts down just 58-59 after 30 minutes.

Williams’s big alley-oop made it 58-61 to open the final frame, but Grigonis and Will Clyburn both scored from deep and CSKA was ahead 64-61. Neither team scored for almost 3 minutes until a Keenan Evans transition dunk got Maccabi within 64-63 midway through the fourth. After a timeout, Lundberg connected on a pair of three-pointers to give CSKA its biggest cushion at 70-65 with under 4 minutes to play. Maccabi three times countered CSKA to get it back to a 2-point game - twice from Wilbekin on free throws and a layup to make it 74-72 with 80 seconds remaining. Zizic came up with a big block of Lundberg, but Williams only split free throws with 17 seconds left to make it 74-73. With Maccabi needing to get a steal, video replay showed an in-bounds pas went off Grigonis to give the guests the ball with 15 seconds remaining. On the final play, Wilbekin dribbled into traffic and fed the ball to Williams who was met in the paint and attempted the game-winner, but missed. Lundberg grabbed the rebound and the hosts ran out the clock.

A 3 pass combination to unleash the fast break! ‍♂️ #7DAYSMagicMoment pic.twitter.com/GxoxMlHaIN
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) November 11, 2021

Pivotal performer: Lundberg steps up when needed most

Iffe Lundberg led the way for CSKA as he scored a team-high 14 points. The Danish guard made 6 of 11 shots - including 2 of 2 from long range. The 11 attempts were the most since he took 12 shots in Round 2, when he scored 17 points. Lundberg also grabbed 4 rebounds and dished out 2 assists. Besides his 2 three-pointers early in the fourth quarter, he also hit a big shot with just more than a minute to play to make it 74-70, which ended up being the winning score.

Williams not enough for Maccabi

Derrick Williams continued his outstanding season for Maccabi. He poured in 20 points, making 6 of 8 two-pointers, but shooting just 1-of-5 from long range and also making 5 of 6 free throws. The big man snagged 3 rebounds and 2 steals as well for an index rating of 17. Williams had the chance to win the game in the final seconds but he could not connect in the paint and Maccabi was forced to leave Moscow with a loss.

Telling numbers: CSKA does it with defense

CSKA did a great job containing Maccabi from the outside as the visitors made just 2-of-13 three-pointers (15.4%). But the biggest number for CSKA head coach Dimitris Itoudis was 73 as in the number of points Maccabi scored. That was 9.9 points fewer than the 82.9 points per game CSKA had been allowing going into the game - the worst defense in the league. CSKA also improved to 12-2 against Maccabi in their last 14 matchups.

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Euroleague.net

Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; PEREZ, EMILIO; TRAWICKI, TOMASZ

Attendance: 2703

By Quarter	1	2	3	4
CSKA Moscow	17	22	19	16
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv	19	19	21	14

End of Quarter	1	2	3	4
CSKA Moscow	17	39	58	74
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv	19	38	59	73

CSKA Moscow

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
1	LUNDBERG, IFFE	25:40	14	4/9	2/2		1	3	4	2		1		1	1	2	14
3	BOLOMBOY, JOEL	23:19	12	4/5	1/2	1/2	1	5	6	1	1	1			3	1	14
8	IVLEV, VLADIMIR	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
10	HACKETT, DANIEL	14:35	6	2/5	0/1	2/2				2	1	1			3	3	4
11	ANTONOV, SEMEN	17:03	4	2/2	0/2		1	2	3		1				3		3
21	CLYBURN, WILL	26:37	7	1/7	1/2	2/2	1	4	5		1	1		1		3	7
23	SHENGELIA, TORNIKE	18:41	4	2/3	0/2			2	2	1		2			2	1	1
28	LOPATIN, ANDREI	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
35	FARIED, KENNETH	15:23	6	2/4		2/2	3	2	5						4	1	6
40	GRIGONIS, MARIUS	16:09	10	1/4	2/4	2/2	2		2	1		1			2	2	7
41	KURBANOV, NIKITA	20:40	2	1/2	0/1		2	1	3				1				4
91	SHVED, ALEXEY	21:53	9	3/4	1/2			2	2	6	1	4	1		3	1	11
	Team
	Totals	200:00	74	22/45	7/18	9/10	11	21	32	13	5	11	2	2	21	14	71
				48.9%	38.9%	90%

Head coach: ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
1	WILBEKIN, SCOTTIE	23:42	9	3/6		3/3		1	1	1	1	4			1	3	7
2	EVANS, KEENAN	30:05	6	3/5	0/1		1	1	2	4	1				2	2	10
4	CALOIARO, ANGELO	25:49	3		1/3			4	4	2	1				3		5
6	WILLIAMS, DERRICK	32:08	20	6/8	1/5	5/6		3	3		2	2			2	3	17
7	TAYLOR, KAMERON	13:24	4	2/3	0/1			2	2	2				1	1		4
8	REYNOLDS, JALEN	11:47	4	1/1		2/2		2	2			1			1	2	6
9	SORKIN, ROMAN	7:52	5	2/2	0/1	1/1	1	1	2						2	1	5
12	DIBARTOLOMEO, JOHN	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
21	NUNNALLY, JAMES	25:33	6	2/6	0/2	2/2	1	3	4	3	1	2		1	1	2	6
23	ZIZIC, ANTE	28:12	16	6/11		4/7	3	3	6	2	1		2			7	26
26	LESSORT, MATHIAS	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
99	ZIV, IFTAH	1:28										1			2		-3
	Team						2	2	4			2					2
	Totals	200:00	73	25/42	2/13	17/21	8	22	30	14	7	12	2	2	15	20	85
				59.5%	15.4%	81%

Head coach: SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS

CSKA Moscow

“Congratulations to my team. We witnessed a very close game. I don’t remember how many lead changes and ties there were. Both teams showed a tremendous desire at both ends. We managed to open up some small margins - 4 or 5 points - but Maccabi came back with some difficult shots or well-organized offenses or transition game. It helped us a lot to win the rebound battle and to have 11 offensive boards, which gave us extra possessions and some of them we punished them and scored. This was huge. In these close games, you need those extra possessions to give you an extra play and score or draw a foul. We stayed together as a team in the difficult moments and we will stay together because the adversity continues. We embraced all the adversities and we’re going to fight all the obstacles as a team. This is what I like about our team and our players. You can see the fire: everybody stepped up. Even though we were not that brilliant offensively, the fact that Grigonis came and gave us 16 quality minutes, I didn’t expect that he would play that much. I thought 10 minutes would be enough for him but he was an X-factor at both ends, creating and scoring. Unfortunately, we found out in the morning of the game that Niko [Milutinov] could not participate in the game. I am smiling because I said we are going to embrace the adversities. Some things you cannot predict. Niko was practicing with us two days straight and he felt great. He played 10 minutes in the UNICS game. All of a sudden he had a problem. But the important thing is who played and the fact that Semen [Antonov] and Kenneth [Faried] came up big and Will [Clyburn] at the '4' and involving the guards was very important for the rebounds and the defensive effort against their bigs. The effort, in general, was there, so congratulations for that. Congratulations also to the fans that they kept believing and gave a boost to the players. That’s very important too. In the EuroLeague, nothing is given. You have to earn it on the court. And this is what we're going to do. We’ll figure it out altogether.”

SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv

“In the locker room, I congratulated our players for how they fought tonight. It was a very close game from the first moment to the last. We are unhappy that we had the last shot but could not win the game. But this happens in basketball. The fact that we didn’t win the game does not cancel the big fight that our team gave. In the second half and mainly in the last quarter, CSKA scored a lot of tough shots at the buzzer. This is how they were up in the score. In the end, we tried to come back but the more lucky team won in the end. Both teams deserved to win this game.”

Players

LUNDBERG, IFFE

CSKA Moscow

“We came in prepared to fight for 40 minutes and that’s exactly what we did tonight. And I’m just really really proud of the way that we stuck together throughout the game. Coach told us to keep fighting and trust each other, especially on defense. Ultimately we came out with the win and we're really happy with the result.”

BOLOMBOY, JOEL

CSKA Moscow

“Man, it felt like a finals game. It was definitely a hard-fought game. We needed it. We’ve been battling, competing every day in practice. We’ve been working really hard. We trusted each other tonight and we were able to get the job done today."

WILLIAMS, DERRICK

Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv

"Honestly I don’t think we lacked anything at all. It was a one-point game against a very, very good team on the road. So we have a lot to look at positively and negatively. We had a few things, some rebounds that happened leading into the fourth quarter. But at the same time I thought we played great. A one-point loss, we didn’t come here to lose. So that’s tough. But at the same time we learned a lot tonight about our team and the character that we have and we will fight until the end. We can complete with anybody. That’s the main thing. I think everybody knows we can compete with any team: Barca, CSKA, any of the top names that people say. We can compete and win. Tonight it didn’t happen. But at the same time we’re a good team. As long as we know we’re a good team that’s the confidence we need."