Great game for Russia, some regrets for CSKA fans

Yesterday’s game between Russia and Great Britain, I’m sure, will add to regrets of CSKA fans caused by imminent departures of Andrey Kirilenko and Aleksey Shved. Naturally, we’re all happy for them going to NBA and wish them the best of luck, but looking at their unbelievable performances in the opener, one just couldn’t help wondering how great CSKA would’ve been next season with that duo on its roster.

Alas, we’ll just have to move on and I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome the newest addition – Sonny Weems – to CSKA. He had a great 2011-2012 season with Zalgiris and surely will be a valuable player for us.

Going back to the game, it obviously was a great showing for Russia. First and foremost, they managed to impose the up-tempo style and forced lots of turnovers and bad shots. All of that led to fast-breaks pushed by Shved who carried out his point guard duties extremely well. His 13 assists could be an all-time high for the Olympics. I can’t remember a performance that brilliant happen at any of the Games I watched. And Kirilenko was just as amazing without the ball – with his cutting, slashing, rebounding and running the break. I think with the exception of maybe one jumper, he scored all of his points after great off the ball moves. Viktor Khryapa, as always, was the guy who glued the team together and everybody else was unselfish and aggressive.

I’d say Russia gave the second strongest performance of the opening day, trailing only to the USA. It definitely impressed me more than Spain.

All in all, the first day of the tournament gave us pretty logical results, though some of the favorites were somewhat lethargic. I have to point to Spain here again. They needed very good performances from Pau Gasol and Navarro to overcome China.

Also, Lithuania seemed overwhelmed by their opponents’ aggressiveness. Argentina definitely looked like a team on a mission. They seem to realize that this could be the last chance for the Ginobili-Prigioni-Scola generation to add something to their already impressive medal collection. And for Lithuania this’d better be the wake-up call. They still have time to gather themselves. It’ll be a long tournament.