Sergey Karasev: "We just need to go to Kazan and enjoy the game"

Zenit captain Sergey Karasev shared his thoughts ahead of the away game against UNICS. The match in Kazan will take place tomorrow, December 20, and will tip off at 15:00 St. Petersburg time.

— Sergey, UNICS haven’t lost at home in regular-season games since last December. How do you break that streak and conquer the seemingly impregnable Kazan?

— We need to play our basketball and do what we did against Loko for all 40 minutes. And play that way no matter what — whether we’re leading or trailing. We have to keep playing and play together. One for all and all for one. We just need to go to Kazan, enjoy the game, savor the moment, and give 100 percent.

— In that case, who’s D’Artagnan on the team, and who are the three musketeers?

— We always have five players on the court, and D’Artagnan and the musketeers are the head coach and his assistants.

— What is UNICS’ main strength?

— Their play around the basket. The strengths of Bingham and Reynolds, as well as Pierre. UNICS are a very tall team and put a lot of pressure inside. One of our main tasks is to stop points in the paint. Plus, we have to remember that they always play very aggressively on defense at home. They’re constantly applying pressure. They’ve beaten many teams precisely by suffocating the opponent from the very first possession. We need to withstand the press and keep playing our basketball.

— This week, fans saw the first win of the season against a top-4 club. What would you like to say to Zenit fans?

— Keep supporting us no matter what. We’ll go out on the court and give 100 percent. We’ll do our best to make you happy with victories.