After his side’s 100-69 demolition of 2014 Euroleague champions Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv on Thursday, CSKA Moscow coach Dimitris Itoudis warned the rest that the Muscovites have not reached their peak yet.
CSKA held Maccabi scoreless for more than six minutes of the second quarter as the Russian giants extended their 29-20, first quarter advantage into a 44-29 lead at the break.
The flawless teamwork was evident and the execution was clinical as CSKA made light work of the Israeli side in the opening round of Euroleague play, but Itoudis says that his guys have not shown their best side yet.
“I said to the team that we have to turn the page and play even better because we did not reach our peak yet,” Itoudis said.
But this was by far the most dominant performance of week one and if Itoudis thinks that his side can play even better than Thursday’s blowout, then, like every Euroleague season, CSKA Moscow will be amongst the early season favourites for a spot at next May’s Final Four in Berlin.
“I liked how we played on the glass, we had 16 rebounds offensively taking almost the same number as Maccabi (19),” Itoudis explained.
“Talking about the rebounding battle, I can dig even deeper to the stats and mention eight team rebounds – that says how the players boxed out and dived for the balls.”
CSKA travel to Dinamo Sassari in round two next Friday.
