Apart from center Nikola Milutinov who suffered a left knee injury in the game against AX Armani Exchange Milan, CSKA Moscow traveled to Instanbul for their second EuroLeague game against Anadolu Efes Istanbul without Marius Grigonis as well.
Per the Russian club's announcement, the Lithuanian guard-forward has been dealing with a problem in his back, and therefore, both he and Milutinov stayed in Moscow for rehab.
This means that both teams' rosters will be very close to the ones fans saw in the Cologne semifinal.
"We are playing against the defending champion, so this is a difficult game by default. Efes team is staying together for more than three years, they have some additions. So it's a difficult task for us," coach Dimitris Itoudis said.
"We are definitely ready," CSKA center Joel Bolomboy added.
"We know we are going to this game ready to fight. We were practicing hard, we are set to bounce back after our last loss, and we know they are ready to fight too. We got to stick to our game plan, play CSKA basketball and give it all we have.
(After Milutinov'ss injury) we know we got to step up, especially me and other bigs, who play at five. I will bring extra energy and extra effort to cover up for Niko being down," Bolomboy concluded.
Like what we are doing? You can express your gratitude here.
