Parma — CSKA, 20 December 2023

How to deal with Molot

“We expect a very difficult game, probably the toughest of all that we played recently,” says CSKA head coach Emil Rajkovic. “Parma is one of the hottest teams in the league, they won 5 games in a row, they caught a rhythm and know how to use their home-court advantage. Besides, we played a close game in Moscow that was decided in the last seconds. So we are taking this trip very seriously. Our goal is to establish our game from the very first minute and try to control it by being focused throughout all 40 minutes.”

The meeting at Megasport, however, turned out to be memorable. For CSKA, it was the final stage of the club's centenary celebrations and, as a result, it turned out to be one of the most persistent and exciting. The red-blues could do practically nothing with the Perm leader BJ Johnson, who scored 33 points but he failed to make lefthanded shot at the buzzer.

Johnson is a key figure for the opponents this season. His averages are 18.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.7 steals. All Parma leaders are foreigners. Isaiah Reese is averaging 16.8 points, 7.0 assists, C.J. Brice has 13.0 points, Richard Solomon averages 11.3 points, 7.9 rebounds.

Short trip

After two double-headers in a row, this one can be called relatively simple. The team will spend a little more than a day on the road - the army team flew by an Aeroflot charter at 16:00 after training in Krylatskoye, and will return late at night, immediately after the game.

The roster of CSKA remains the same as in the previous meeting against Avtodor. Samson Ruzhentsev did not have time to recover from his illness, so he will again be replaced in the dozen by youth team guard Ivan Zaitsev.

Past matchups

Win/Loss Ratio: 14-1

VTB League game of the 2023-24 season:

15-Oct-2023. CSKA – Parma: 77-76 (+1)

Brief dossier

Parma Perm, Russia

Founded: 2012
Colors: blue, white
Home court: UPS Molot (7,000)
CEO: Alexander Bashminov
Head coach: Evgeny Pashutin
Website: parmabasket.ru
Trophy case: 2-time Russian Cup winner (2016, 19), SuperLeague 1 bronze winner (2016)