I think we had a pretty solid regular season. We had a tough group, just as we will have a difficult one in the Top 16, when we play against CSKA and Barcelona in the first two weeks. Still, I think we have a good enough team to put together some home wins and then be able to win on the road. Winning on the road is the key to this group, so hopefully we can get a couple of road wins to make things better for us. We beat Real Madrid twice in the regular season and will face them again in the Top 16. I am sure that they have had a chance to regroup again and start over in the Top 16. The new group is going to be better, more competitive, with a lot of good teams. I think that everybody knows that we have a good team, but it is up to us to play together.

We have had several injuries until now, and especially Paul Davis has missed some games. That has been a little tough, and it meant a few more minutes for me, playing a bit more and getting a bit more tired. But he is coming back now and we have a full team. Everybody is coming back to their momentum, ready to play. I can say we are coming back with a fresh team now. Like I said, it is a tough group with CSKA, Barcelona, Madrid, Olympiacos... but you have to beat the best teams if you want to win the Euroleague. We have to go out there and beat the good teams, starting with CSKA and Barcelona right away. We have to see how we play in these first couple of games and we will see what we need to do after that. It is a tough group but again, everyone knows you need to beat the best teams to win the Euroleague.

Of course, there is a great sports rivalry between CSKA and us. The scouting will be easier, we know their team. The first time we played against them in the VTB League, they didn't have Joel Freeland, so it is going to be a little bit different. It is going to be just another competitive game for us and for them. We want to beat them, they want to beat us and we have to go out there with a winning mentality. They win the VTB League almost every year: three out of the four years that I have been here. They get the better of us most of the time and we are trying to get to their level. We want to challenge them for the VTB League and are now able to face them in the Euroleague, so we are really looking forward to that.

We are a deep, talented team but there is also very good team chemistry. Everybody likes each other and has fun in the locker room. Coach says sometimes we have a little too much fun! We have a great team chemistry and this is what has allowed us to be successful. Everybody likes working with each other and being around each other. We are trying to carry that into the Top 16. We had a 1970s party for Alexey Shved's birthday. It was a fun! He tried to get the team together, also with a couple of his friends and get away a bit from basketball. At that point, we were just playing a lot and travelling a lot. We had the Christmas break and were able to get out together: it was good!

We had some two-and-a-half days off so I went back to Spain for Christmas. I got there for one day and flew back. It was not too much time but it was good enough to go back to Spain, see my family and relax a little bit. We had some good food, the weather was nice and it was good to get out of basketball for a day. Now, it is good to be back, get the team chemistry rolling and start practicing and getting ready to face CSKA.

Now that we made it to the Top 16, our next goal is to start winning as many games as possible. We cannot get ahead of ourselves, but have to go game by game and finish in the top four of our group to make it to the playoffs. Hopefully we can start off with a win on Tuesday and see what we do against Barcelona. It is a long group with 14 games and we have to be ready to play every week. Like I said, Freeland didn't play against us earlier this season, but he will now. There are a lot of big, athletic guys in the Euroleague but Joel is a little bit different. We both played for Gran Canaria so I know a little bit about him. I also played against him when he was with Unicaja and I played for Valencia. Still, it is going to be a team against a team, not me against Joel Freeland. I will try to play good defense against him and see where it goes from there. We signed Dmitry Sokolov and he is fitting well into this team. He is going to help us out a lot on defense with his big body, getting rebounds and changing shots.

This could be a very special season for Khimki. There is a good group of guys who have been playing together for at least a couple of seasons. We have the right team to do great things this year. We have to put it together on court, play together as a team, play good defense and keep our team chemistry going. If we do, we will have good chances to accomplish our goals this year.

Wish us luck!