One of my Valencia teammates in the 2010 winning squad was Matt Nielsen, who is also here in Khimki this season. The subject — having won the Eurocup — comes up a lot because we have a joke going on. Far before we were near to winning the Eurocup, in the early stages of the competition, I just kind of ran my mouth, saying 'hey, if we win the Eurocup, I am going to buy everybody a set of headphones'. It turned out we won the Eurocup and Matt keeps reminding me he is still waiting on his headphones! We talk about it often. Matt had a great year and was the Eurocup Finals MVP. He brings a lot of experience and playing the competition with a fellow champion gives us a little bit of advantage. There is great chemistry between me and him, of course.

We have not one, but two Eurocup Finals MVPs now that Marius Petravicius has joined the team. Coach Rimas Kurtinaitis also won the Eurocup with Lietuvos Rytas. I compare the differences between my team and Turow, when we were all new to the Eurocup and didn't quite have the experience to make it all the way. Having so many people that have won the competition before is huge — it shows we are able to compete at the highest level. We know what it takes to win the Eurocup and there are other guys in the team that might not have lifted the trophy, but played at a very high level elsewhere. The more experience you have, especially in the competition you are playing, the more you can bring to your team. Coach Kurtinaitis was a great player and is a great leader. It is good thing to have these kind of players when we are under pressure, too. I know all of us can step up to win tough games.

As you probably know, Coach Kurtinaitis was one of the best shooters — if not the best — in European basketball back in the 1980s and the 1990s. And of course, he challenges us after practice! Over the last two years, he challenges all the shooters — me, Vitaly Fridzon and also Travis Hansen last season. It is amazing, he still has a great touch — once you are a shooter, you are always a shooter, no matter your age or body, you never lose that touch. I have been staying in shape, shooting a lot every day and he comes on the court and starts knocking down three-pointers without even touching the ball before! It is pretty amazing and I can ride with him, myself being a shooter. It is great to have a coach who understands the game the same way I do.

As for the Eurocup season, everything has clicked until now. The chemistry in this team is unbelievable, not only on the court, but everywhere — we hang out together, go to dinner together a lot, and stay involved in each other's lives, and all that shows up on the court. When you get to know a guy and start caring about him, it brings a whole other element to the game. We know we have each other's backs from the beginning, because most of us were already here last season. We know each other and play well together, which explains how well we have done so far. It showed this week, when we beat a tough opponent like Aris on the road. It was my second time there — I played against Aris when I was with Valencia — and they had been close to beating Panathinaikos before facing us. They took the game all the way to the end and should have won it. We knew we would face a tough environment — the fans there and the atmosphere they create is great. Aris fans cheer really hard for their team! Our experience and being focused for the whole 40 minutes led us to victory.

Have you noticed that all three Russian teams won their Eurocup games last week? The Russian League has improved in the last few years — it is not just CSKA and Khimki anymore. Unics is playing well in the Euroleague and made it to the Top 16, of course CSKA is undefeated in that competition, and the Russian League just keeps getting better. Spartak has great ambition to be a Euroleague team and everyone knows in Russia that you need to win the championship or the Eurocup to get there. We all have in our minds that the Eurocup is the most direct way we have to get to the Euroleague — and that's the goal for any competitive team. Lokomotiv-Kuban and Spartak know that the Euroleague spot and the Eurocup title are on the line, and they will fight to come here to Khimki for the Eurocup Finals.

Speaking of Khimki, I had always been reluctant to come to Russia. I don't know why, maybe I had heard negative things earlier on in my career, but coach Sergio Scariolo called me last year, I came and now that I have been here for a while, it is much, much better than I expected. Other than the weather and the traffic, it is a good place to be. The club organization really does its best to make your life as comfortable as possible. The facilities are phenomenal and that is very important to playing well, especially for a foreigner playing outside your comfort zone in a different country and culture. Khimki does a great job helping foreigners to adjust. I can say I am very comfortable playing here and I would recommend everyone to come to Russia to play and give a try, really.

I want to finish this blog entry with a message to Khimki fans. The more fans we have in our games, the better show it will be! We feed from the energy of the crowd. Every fan that comes out to watch us just make us more focused and we want to win that much more. You will see better basketball, too. It all relies on our fans — the more people come, the better we play. Hope that we will be well on the right way to the quarterfinals the next time I get in touch with you. Until then, enjoy the Eurocup. Go Khimki!