Missing NBA? Euroleague debuts its regular season with an 87 -74 victory for CSKA Moscow over Zalgiris Kaunas

CSKA Moscow never trailed as it unveiled its new roster and shined bright en route to an impressive 74-87 victory over Zalgiris Kaunas in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Opening Game Monday at Zalgirio Arena. In his first Euroleague action in a decade, Andrei Kirilenko teamed with former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic to pepper the opening game record book, while Alexey Shved came through with a Euroleague career-high 19 points. Kirilenko finished with 17 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks to set a new standard for performance index rating in the opening game with 37. He also now has the second most rebounds and blocks in opening game history. Milos Teodosic amassed 16 points and 8 assists for CSKA to tie former teammate Theo Papaloukas for the most dishes in the opening game. Former Zalgiris player Darjus Lavrinovic added 12 points in 13 minutes and Nenad Krstic scored 11 over the winners. CSKA jumped ahead early and led by 12 after a Shved triple to open the second quarter. Sonny Weems led Zalgiris on an 11-0 charge to get back in the game, but the hosts never took the lead and Teodosic and Lavrinovic had CSKA up 31-44 by halftime. And Zalgiris never fully recovered. DeJuan Collins paced Zalgiris with 18 points and 4 assists and Sonny Weems scored 16 in his Euroleague debut. At halftime, Euroleague all-time leading scorer Marcus Brown, who announced his retirement last week, was honored by both teams.