CSKA assembled a medal set – Kommersant
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CSKA defeated Zenit in the fifth match of the series for third place with a score of 82:79 and won bronze medals in the VTB United League championship. True, in any case, the result of this season for them is the worst for all the time they have played in the tournament.
Last year’s confrontation between CSKA and Zenit in the final play-off series turned out to be so high-class that many fans probably expected it to be repeated this season as well. The victory of the “forever third” “Zenith” over CSKA in a furious, first in the history of the league seven-match series, during which the Petersburgers rose from the score 1:3, to be sure, made an impression. CSKA needed revenge after such a misfire. And throughout the 2022/23 season, the army team went very confidently towards him. But on the way to the semi-finals, they got in the way of a very vigorous Lokomotiv-Kuban. As a result, the wards of Emil Rajkovic ended up in the consolation series for third place. Zenit was also found there, which was a little lacking to get past UNICS. As a result, the army team still got a chance for revenge, but not the one they were counting on. Yes, and Zenit would clearly prefer to cross with CSKA in the battle for the title. So there were fears that both teams would not take the fight for third place too seriously and the bronze series would turn into a game of doubles.
In fact, the battle of capitals, if we talk specifically about the quality of the game, lost almost nothing from the fact that it was not gold, but only bronze, that was at stake in it. It even developed almost according to the same scenario as the confrontation for the title a year ago.
Then CSKA took the lead in the series 3:1 and seemed to have already broken the opponent. But “Zenith” gave out a powerful series of three victories and issued the championship. Moreover, the Petersburgers won the decisive match in Moscow. Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual, answering a question about the similarity of situations a year ago and now, noted that the events of a year ago should not be compared with the current ones, that the situation is completely different. But no matter how much the Spanish specialist wanted, it was difficult to get away from comparisons.
The fifth match of the series posed an extremely simple task for Zenit, the essence of which is determined by the formula “victory or death”. A year ago, getting into a regime where there is nowhere to retreat, Pascual’s team had an invigorating effect. This time, the guests started the most important match as if they were already tired of the long season and subconsciously were not averse to it ending sooner. Zenit scored the first point from the game almost four minutes after the start of the match. But at the same time, Pascual’s team looked unimportant also in defense. CSKA, without doing anything special, using the standard Casper Weir, Nikola Milutinov, Samson Ruzhentsev, calmly scored points and effortlessly broke away by ten points.
In response, Pascual shuffled the line-up, made substitutions in batches, and finally seemed to find the right combination with two big ones – Artem Klimenko and Adrien Moerman significantly improved Zenit’s game. In the moment, he not only eliminated the backlog, but even pulled ahead.
And then there’s Caleb Homesley, who finally began to hit from a distance. This did not change the course of the game, but it definitely leveled it. And in the final quarter, Zenit still began to get long-range shots not episodically, but in series. In two minutes Andrey Zubkov, Trent Frazier and Toma Ertel hit from the distance, and already the guests took the lead by eight points. At this point, Raikovich had to react somehow.
At such a moment, Alexei Shved would be very useful to the CSKA mentor, but, we recall, he does not play due to injuries received as a result of a hooligan attack on him. True, the Swede was still present in the stands today. However, even without him, Raikovich found resources that allowed him to move the match to the end. Half a minute before the siren, Fraser converted two free throws and brought Zenit to plus one – 79:78. CSKA responded with an accurate throw by Dejan Davidovac, which actually decided the outcome of the match. Zenit still had time, but the guests could not do anything useful.
The army team won with a score of 82:79, won the series and won the bronze medals of the championship. They haven’t had any yet. For all the time of performances in the VTB United League, CSKA did not fall below second place.
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