EUROLEAGUE - Shved, Spanoulis take center stage

ISTANBUL (Euroleague/FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) - Andrei Kirilenko has been the face of Russian basketball for more than a decade because of his NBA career with the Utah Jazz and success with the national team.

Having returned to his former club CSKA Moscow during the NBA Lockout that delayed the start of this season, and then remained after the end of the labor dispute instead of signing as a free agent in America with a new team, Kirilenko has demonstrated over and over that he remains an elite player.

The 31-year-old is having to share some of the spotlight in Russia and at the Euroleague Final Four in Istanbul, though, because on his own CSKA team is another mesmerizing player.

The high-flying Alexey Shved wowed the Sinan Erdem Arena crowd on Friday, pouring in 15 points to help the team into a Euroleague final showdown with Olympiacos.

Shved did a little bit of everything in his game for CSKA.

He hit a three-pointer, despite having Panathinaikos behemoth Mike Batiste bearing down on him, and he scored on daring drives to the basket.

Shved could find himself in a battle with Olympiacos sharpshooter Vassilis Spanoulis on Sunday.

The two could also square off at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) since Spanoulis and Greece, and Shved and Russia, will be there.

A lot has been said about the international retirement of Dimitrios Diamantidis from Greece and how that hurt their chances of a medal last year at the EuroBasket, but the absence of Spanoulis last summer due to injury hurt, too.

The 1.93m guard, who is 29, is a player who likes to have the ball in his hands.

While he launches more three-balls than Shved, Spanoulis is effective putting the ball on the floor and going hard to the basket.

When the defenses collapse, he usually finds an open teammate cutting to the hoop, or one that is open for a jumper.

Spanoulis had 21 points in the Reds’ 68-64 victory over Barcelona on Friday but also finished with six assists.

He hit four three-pointers that were crucial, too.

In the first semi-final, CSKA needed every one of Shved’s points to beat Panathinaikos.

They trailed 29-15 at the end of the first quarter, yet tightened up on defense and got just enough from Kirilenko (17pts), Shved and Milos Teodosic (12) to scrape a 66-64 win.

In a strange ending to the semi-final, Serbia international Teodosic went to the line with nine seconds left and his team leading by two.

Instead of killing the game off, he missed two free throws.

After a timeout, Panathinaikos inbounded the ball to last year’s Final Four MVP Diamantidis and the Greek failed to deliver.

Having hit just one of his nine shots from the arc, Diamantidis passed up an attempt of a potential game-winning three-pointer and gave Kostas Kaimakoglou a pass at his feet that he wasn’t able to catch.

As Kaimakoglou dived on the floor to get the ball, the final buzzer sounded.

A 1.95 guard, Shved isn't as tall as the 2.06m Kirilenko.

Nor is he as fierce on defense.

But Shved, who wears No 23 like ‘His Airness', Michael Jordan, once did with the Chicago Bulls, can jump out of the gym.

He does plenty of things that will help CSKA in the final, and the Russians when they travel to Caracas, Venezuela for the OQT.

There is another intriguing match-up on the cards on Sunday.

One of the Greek national team players for Olympiacos, Georgios Printezis or Kostas Papanikolaou, is almost sure to go head-to-head with Kirilenko on Sunday.

If Olympiacos have success in that match-up, it would make sense for Greece coach Ilias Zouros to guard Kirilenko with the same player if the Greeks face Russia in the OQT, or the Olympics.

Each can present a problem for Kirilenko.

Both Printezis and Papanikolaou finished two of two from long range on Friday against Barcelona. If they can draw Kirilenko away from the basket, the lanes will be open for Spanoulis and the Reds’ big man Joey Dorsey will have more freedom to attack.

That said, CSKA have other big, athletic players that can cause problems for Dorsey.

One of them is Andrey Vorontsevich, who made very little impact in the nine minutes and 37 seconds he played against Panathinaikos.

Vorontsevich will be eager to make his mark on Sunday and he may be called on to mark Pero Antic, the 2.10m power forward who spends much of his time behind the arc for Olympiacos.

Antic and Vorontsevich know each other well as they met twice at last year’s EuroBasket.

Vorontsevich and Russia twice beat The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) side that was captained by Antic in games that were decided at the buzzer.

Expect the two to go head-to-head on Sunday, and perhaps again at the OQT and the London Games.

Sarunas Jasikevicius and Kaimakoglou didn’t make it to the final with Panathinaikos, but both enhanced their reputations with solid displays against CSKA.

Jasikevicius, 36, had 19 points on Friday.

He has yet to say if he will be available for Lithuania and their OQT campaign.

Kaimakoglou might have been on the bubble of Greece selection but he may have punched his ticket with 10 points, eight rebounds, five assists and a steal for Pana.

FIBA