The clash of the most in shape teams of the moment: CSKA vs. Anadolu Efes
In Round 23 of Turkish Airlines Euroleague, CSKA Moscow will meet Anadolu Efes in a game where both teams are in very good shape. This game is also the game that put face to face two of the best scorers in the competition, Mike James (21.1 ppg) and Shane Larkin (21.8 ppg). In their last meeting, CSKA won in Sinan Erdem Dome, thanks to a last-second jumper from Mike James, who finished with 28 points. Can Anadolu take the win here? Let’s see the preview.
CSKA Moscow is in a very good form, winning their last 7 games in all competitions, including 5 in Euroleague. In their last game, they beat away Khimki Moscow in a tough Russian derby. The game started a little low for CSKA, but at the end of the first quarter, they secured a 4 points lead. After that, the game simply marched to a CSKA victory, because Khimki wasn’t able to take the lead another time for the entire game. At the start of last quarter, CSKA had a 21 points lead and despite Khimki’s fourth-quarter victory 31-19, they won the game 78-69. Khimki completed only 7 shots inside the arc, compared to CSKA’s 23. Also, in the rebounds battle, the Red Army had 42 points, compared to 26 from the opponents. The main contributors for the visitors were: Mike James (21 points and 3 rebounds), Johannes Voigtmann (15 points and 14 rebounds) and Kyle Hines (13 points and 6 rebounds). Will Clyburn, Janis Strelnieks and Andrey Vorontsevich are out for this game.
What can I say more about Anadolu Efes? They play a great basketball this season and will be very hard for every team to stop them. They lost only once in their last 15 Euroleague games and thanks to that run, they are in the first place with a 19-3 record, while 2nd is Real Madrid with a 16-6 record. In their last Euroleague game, they travelled to Serbia where they beat Crvena Zvezda 85-78, thanks to a great game from Shane Larkin (24 points and 3 assists). In the weekend, they played in TBL, where they received the visit from Bandirma. They dominated the game almost the entire game, with a bad moment in the second quarter. The main contributors for Efes were: Chris Singleton (18 points and 4 rebounds), Tibor Pleiss (18 points and 5 rebounds) and Shane Larkin (12 points and 10 assists). Bryant Dunston is the only player injured for Anadolu.
This will be a tough match and the duel between James and Larkin will catch all the attention. Both teams have very good rosters and it’s too hard to predict a winner, but, CSKA has a chance to stop, one more time, Anadolu Efes. The impact of Howard Sant-Roos defensively is huge for them and if they can stop Larkin and protect the rim very well, then the victory will be an easy task.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
