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Itoudis full of praise for the German champions

- This might as well be the toughest game of the season for us. CSKA are Europe's best team at the moment - Trinchieri said

CSKA are set to face the Germans following the first defeat of this season, which might not necessarily be a bad thing since it will serve them as a warning. 

- Our players are not robots. Our shooting was bad, which is connected to the fact we didn't have any practices before the game and had just played Sassari in Italy - coach Itoudis said.

It really isn't easy to play in Sicily on Friday and then go to Novgorod on Sunday. There are a lot of hours on the plane there and losses happen is a situation like that. Hines went 3/10, Teodosic 6/16, De Colo 5/13... CSKA should have lost in regulation time but the Frenchman hit three three pointers to force an overtime.

- In which we had 5 turnovers.

Novgorod is in the past now and CSKA turned to Euroleague. Things have been going really well for them in this competition. They beat Maccabi and Sassari, hitting 100 points against the Israelis and 107 against the Italians. 

- Bamberg are a very aggressive team on both ends of the floor. They are tough physically and mentally. Their game is very rough and they use their athleticism and mobility a lot - CSKA's coach said.

- They are very well organized and know what they want. 

CSKA had Hrjapa at their disposal in Italy, meaning only Freeland is out when it comes to the more important players. 

- It is important for us to play our game - Hines said

The visitors from Germany said that they will play without any pressure before leaving for Moscow, knowing that they don't have much to lose today. Brose left a very good impression in the opening two Euroleague rounds, especially against Darussafaka. Home games will be crucial for Brose and every point they get away will be a extra help.

- This might as well be the toughest game of the season. CSKA are Europe's best team. Playing the best teams is always interesting. We'll give it our best, try and play as long as we can without panicking. We have to learn something from this game. You always learn when you play the top teams - Trinchieri said.

- There is no pressure. We're going to give it our best - Staiger said. Brose never beat CSKA even though they tried 8 times.

When it comes to Bundesliga, the team from Bamberg usually do great. They had around 40 hours to prepare and rest ahead of the Oldenburg match, which seems to have been enough, if we take a look at the outcome. Oldenburg were close for some 25 minutes. They even had the lead until half time but Brose took control of the game late in the third quarter. Oldenburg had 7 players on the roster and clearly couldn't keep up the first half pace. That lead to a big decline in their defense.

Brose do have enough players on the roster, which allowed Trichieri to change a lot again. Position five was once again the greatest problem since Brose struggled with defending opponents' center Qvale. Wanamaker and Strelnieks lead the offensive end, while Melli did well in the paint. It might be a bit surprising that Trinchieri used Harris and Thies for such a small amount of time, while Olaseni and Idbihi play only supporting roles at the center position.

 It will be interesting to see if the Italian coach will maybe choose to go small and put Melli at center, alongside Wanamaker, Strelniks and Zisis. The guards trio was Brose's greatest strength so far, but we have to see whether they can do well against the top-quality CSKA's backcourt. 

Aaron Jackson is 29 years old and 190 cm tall, and he's a player of CSKA. We're used to CSKA having a strong team with a lot of width for scoring from the past seasons. Jackson scored last season 7.2 points per match in Euroleague and 7.5 in VTB League. He passed this margin only in 10 out of 65 matches. A season before that he scored five out of seven points on average in all competitions. In this year's Euroleague so far he was in the mood for above average results, twice he scored 12 points, but we have to consider that he had an above average shot percentage. In VTB League the situation is a bit more realistic: he scored 10, six, four and three points. Today CSKA are hosting Brose Baskets who have a solid defense in the back line with Wanamaker, Zisis and Strelnieks. All in all, in a team such as CSKA I don't believe Jackson will have an average of 11 or points more by the end of the season, and that's why this margin seems too high in long-term. It's time for his average performance in Euroleague, I expect him between six and 10 points. My margin would be 8.5, and I wouldn't go over that either.