Both teams scored on their first three possessions, Orlando on foul shots and a fastbreak layup by Rashard Lewis, CSKA with baskets shared by Siskauskas and Smodis. When CSKA got called for its fifth foul in as many defenses, coach Ettore Messina took a timeout with his team down only 10-8. That was about to change, however, as CSKA couldn't get a defensive stop and the Magic went to Hedo Turkoglu and Howard to soar ahead by 21-8. Zoran Planinic then lifted CSKA with a pair of baskets, and crashed to the floor making his third, but Howard was unstoppable with a series of hooks that left the Magic in charge, 37-19 after one quarter. The game settled down in the second quarter as CSKA's defense started holding the Magic to jump shots and rebounded the misses well. Orlando had a high lead of 40-19 before Terence Morris scored twice make it 42-25, at which point the Magic went back to Howard, who restored a 20-point lead at 47-27. CSKA rookie Sasha Kaun hit a nice reverse layup at 49-29, but Turkoglu finished the half with a buzzer-beating triple from the corner for the Magic's highest lead yet, 52-29.
Turkoglu boosted the Orlando lead even higher with the first two baskets after the half. CSKA responded with the next seven points, as Lorbek and Matjas Smodis sandwiched two-pointers around a triple from Trajan Langdon. Bad luck struck the visitors from Russia right then, however, as Siskauskas and Lorbek were whistled for their fifth fouls each in the span of a few seconds. Orlando reacted again by looking to howard, who responded with seven points, including five free throws, as the Magic lead soared to 71-43 after three quarters. By the time that Orlando scored the first six points of the fourth quarter, the outcome was already sure, but players like CSKA newcomers Victor Keyru and his fellow guards, Nikos Zisis and Alexey Shved, used the extra time to show what they can do. A victory was not to be for CSKA in its first game on North American soil, but the Euroleague champs have another chance next Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors in Canada.
POST-GAME COMMENTS
CSKA Moscow head coach Ettore Messina
First of all I must say that in this game, we were for sure overwhelmed physically by the Magic, in every position. We are used to being a big team in terms of size and power and kilos in the Euroleague. Here, they had taller, stronger or heavier or sometimes even faster players everywhere, so we had a physical mismatch at every position. So that was a big problem, not only to defend them, especially in the paint, where Howard was almost unstoppable, but also to find a good shot on offense, because with their quickness they were covering and taking away our advantage most of the time. In the process of the game, I found that the interesting thing was to find that my team, which is used to being on the winning side, might have quit or thought they don't care about this, and just forget it. But instead we were humble and kept playing and trying to figure out how we could compete more with them, and we did that a little in the third quarter and much more in the fourth. Obviously, the Magic were playing their second lineup by then, but we also had our young players, so overall I think it's been a very good experience because it showed us our limitations and in which direction we need to work. We were just soft at the beginning, made too many fouls and were not aggressive enough with too many of our players, and obviously at this level you pay for it. They were just much better than us, period."
CSKA Moscow guard Nikos Zisis
"It was a good experience for us anyway. I think that Orlando is one of the best teams in the East of the NBA. They have great players. In the first half, we were a little bit out of the game mentally because maybe we were, I'd say, completely out of rhythm. The second half we played a little better and we tried and gave our best until the end. And that was good for us. After this game, I think we'll be much readier for Toronto when we play them a few days from now."
CSKA Moscow guard Zoran Planinic
"Especially in first quarter, defensively we did not respond. Orlando is a very athletic team, and when they went inside, we made fouls and they got to the free throw line and hit everything. From the get-go, the game was almost a 20-point difference. But I think we managed to fight until the end, we didn't put our heads down, and that's the positive thing. We want to get better and to be a better team after this trip. So even when we were down we stayed positive and tried to play together."
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