Former Chicago Bull Victor Khryapa has signed a 4.5 year contract with CSKA Moscow this week. He had his first appearance for his new team tonight.
With this long term signing, CSKA tries to hold the talented forward now with the team for the future. Khryapa was one of the players that probably went too early to the NBA. What he is able to do, he showed during the Eurobasket this summer where he was with the Russian team that won the Gold medal. Now, I wanted to know how he will translate his game into Euroleague action.
Khryapa entered the court somewhere in the middle of the first quarter. And he tried immediately to have some impact as he went for some offensive moves directly. He was very aggressive and he got fouled on his both scoring attempts. But he missed all of the 4 free-throws. He saw some minutes in the second half too where he scored but it was a different story to tell.
It was fantastic in terms of comeback basketball action. CSKA was behind with 10 in the last minutes but two big plays by Ramunas Siskauskas and Theodoros Papaloukas (two times a drive and dish for a three executed once by the Lithuanian and once by the Greek) brought CSKA back into the game. The last minute had a huge sequence with three block shots by Roma on three point attempts in a row. Finally, I thought the game would be decided but a very bad pass by Roma gave Papaloukas the possibility to bring them back. A missed free-throw by the Greek clutch player then should heaved sealed the deal but with 4.9secs left and Roma missing their second free-throw attempt, Trajan Langdon went up for an incredible three pointer from 9 meters that swished in for the win.
