By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a manner perhaps easier than what the final score shows, CSKA Moscow brutalized Barcelona 85 – 61 in Spain, practically erasing the few chances the Blaugrana had for making it to the EuroLeague playoffs.
Meawhile, the defending champs caught up with Real Madrid at the peak of the standings by improving their record to 18 – 6 thanks to Nando De Colo’s 21 points, Nikita Kurbanov’s 12, Cory Higgins’ 11 plus 6 rebounds and Milos Teodosic’s 9 plus 5 assists.
But it was CSKA as a whole that performed beautiful basketball, especially in the first quarter… in total contrast with their opponents. Coach Itoudis’ players stormed into the game with a 0 – 11, showing their wild intentions quite early.
They proceeded by doing practically anything they wanted on the floor, making buckets with ludicrous ease, while the hosts heavily struggled on both ends. The margin was getting larger and larger until Teodosic hit this ridiculous shot. As if Barcelona’s troubles weren’t big enough already…
Milos Teodosic showing no mercy to Barcelonapic.twitter.com/mYnqOyKE6k
— Eurohoops.net (@Eurohoopsnet) 3 Μαρτίου 2017
As you can probably realize, the game was over almost before it began. Sasa Vezenkov (14 points, 4 rebounds) was the only redeeming quality of Barcelona and his quotes during halftime (24 – 48) pretty much everything there was to say for his team’s performance: “We should be ashamed for ourselves”.
Despite the Bulgarian’s comments, no reaction came by the Catalans. The Russian team was way to serious after the break having no problem whatsoever to remain at a safe distance and the second half was just a standard procedure.