By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
One of the loudest upsets of the EuroLeague season so far took place last night in Belgrade. After “slaughtering” Maccabi Tel Aviv and imposing its will on Real Madrid, Crvena Zvezda brought defending champs CSKA Moscow down 78 – 67.
(Yes, these are the last three EuroLeague crown holders that Red Star has defeated at home during the two weeks).
The Serbian team’s rock-solid and physical to the extreme defense once again tortured its opponents to a game-winning degree. Actually, it was excruciating enough that forced CSKA Moscow to is poorest offensive game in… years.
CSKA managed only 67 points in the match which make for the team’s lowest scoring output in all leagues since… June 2014. The Russian squad had then dropped 65 points in the first game of the VTB League Final series, a sum which was more than enough against Nizhny Novgorod’s 54.
When it comes to EuroLeague, CSKA Moscow tied its poorest offensive performance in the last two and a half years which was recorded in the 2014 EuroLeague Semifinal vs Maccabi Tel Aviv. The “Yellows” had then outlasted the Russian powerhouse 68 – 67 and then proceeded to win the trophy in the Final vs Real Madrid.
Apart from being surprisingly inadequate on offense, CSKA Moscow also tasted the experience of losing two EuroLeague games in a row for the first time since the 2013-2014 season and the back-to-back defeats in the Final Four tournament.