Khimki Moscow in search for the win against Fenerbahce
Another match that will put head to head two playoffs contenders will take place in Moscow when Khimki will face Fenerbahce in Round 28 of Turkish Airlines Euroleague. This match is very important for both sides, as the battle for the last playoff places is tougher than ever. Will Fenerbahce continue their rising in the standings with a win here?
After three wins over Crvena Zvezda, Milano and ASVEL Lyon, Khimki was brought down to earth by the loss suffered against Zalgiris in the last round of Euroleague. The game started with a 29-15 first quarter win for the Lithuanian team and they never lost the control of the game, finishing with a 96-85 win. Both teams had big percentages of shots made in the game, 62% Zalgiris and 56% Khimki, but in the end, the better shooting from distance for the home team made the difference. The main contributors for Khimki were: Alexey Shved (24 points and 4 assists), Janis Timma (20 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists) and Jonas Jerebko (17 points and 10 rebounds). Petr Gubanov, Sergei Monia and Timo Mozgov will be out for this game.
Fenerbahce took the win over Crvena Zvezda in the last round 66-63 and they are finally in the playoff position after 27 rounds. They started very poorly this season, but now their play looks very solid and it will be a huge surprise if they don’t catch a top-8 position at the end of the regular season. Their rotation is very solid, with many good and valuable players and that roster starts to produce wins after many months of suffering for Fenerbahce’s fans. Against Crvena Zvezda, they took the win after a defensive game which ended with only 129 points scored by both teams. In the rebounds battle, Crvena Zvezda came out victorious 35-26, but the Turkish team forced their opponents to do 14 turnovers in the game. The main scorers for the team were: Nikola Kalinic (10 points), Derrick Williams (9 points and 6 rebounds) and Nando de Colo (9 points). For this game, Kostas Sloukas is out, while James Nunnally is doubtful.
In their last meeting, Fenerbahce took an impressive win 89-76, thanks to a very good third quarter that ended 21-6 in their favour and to Luigi Datome (20 points and 4 rebounds) and Kostas Sloukas (19 points and 9 assists), both with huge contributions in the game. For Khimki, Janis Timma had a very good game (26 points and 3 assists) in Alexey Shved’s absence.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
