Timofey Mozgov has updated his blog at Sports.ru.

Here’s my quick translation of the entire post:

Hi everyone! It’s nice after all the hard work in practice to eventually return on the court. First in the game against the Lakers and then Atlanta too. A lot of people make jokes already that LA are my “clients”. I guess there’s some small amount of truth to it: I really play against them often and a lot.

And coaching staff backs it up too. I knew it beforehand that I would step on the court. The “headquarters” informed me about it in the morning. Even though they made a remark that normally they don’t like to let players know in advance. But we were about to face such a strong frontcourt that we had to throw all forces to fight it. They told me to get ready.

I’ll say it once again: I was happy to get some considerable playing time after all. But to tell the truth, I didn’t expect to get so many minutes. Even though – once again, as I already said – physically I’ve been ready for a long time. Foot doesn’t bother me anymore; I’m working hard in the gym: both before the team practice and after it.

Though I already blogged about this training regimen that I have. I won’t repeat myself.

I think I played alright. Alright in a sense that no practice (even if it’s very long and hard) can replace a real game for a basketball player. So of course I don’t get to play enough now. From this stems the stark realization that everything could (and should) be much better.

By the way, here’s what I want to note separately. Finally – in my third NBA season – I got to face Howard on the court!:))) Well, it’s clear why they call this strong, aggressive and quick guy the best center there is. He is gifted with all these qualities in abundance. Actually, you already know his strongest traits.

Of course, he did his thing great against us. Let’s call things by their names: he buried us. Though, despite all that, there were some moments where you could realize that even “superman” is human. He, too, can be not perfect, he can feel the pain and it’s possible to compete with him.

But Bryant wasn’t on his best game. And our defense didn’t let him go too. But, as you can see, it didn’t change the general situation…

I got my second real chance this season – not garbage time, but a good number of minutes – during the game against Atlanta. Once again, I knew it beforehand that I would play. Kosta felt some stomach pains in the morning and wasn’t even listed for the game.

As you can guess, having tasted blood again versus LA, my desire to play exceeded even my normal desire that is always strong. So the “hungry and mad” Mozgov was very active under the rims. With all that, I can’t say I had dramatically changed the way I play and so those 13 rebounds came right away. I was just doing my job, and a good deal of what I tried ended well.



For now, to my regret, main thing didn’t work out: using two chances out of two didn’t bring me a stable spot in rotation. So I continue to patiently work hard.

And to finish, here’s something not basketball-related. Lyokha is almost walking on his own already. He’s even more confident standing on his feet now. Alla and I can’t be happier looking at the new games that he comes up with.

By the way, about the other “games”.

We still go out to eat together with the guys. So, here’s a fun thing that we do. When it’s time to pay on receipt, we take all our credit cards and give it to the waitress. She hides it behind the back and we start to pick the “lucky ones”. The last credit card that’s left is used for payment.

Guys are already looking at me sideways – I’m always out during the “qualifying” rounds for probably a year already. I have to counter it, “When I lose, it’s going to be no problem”. And the most frequent client turns out to be Danilo:))

That’s all for now. Keep waiting for the new posts.

P.S. Sorry that I’m not updating my blog often. I don’t want to write about the mundane stuff, and there aren’t many other causes. I hope that it’s just for now. Oh, and by the way – check the comments too, which you can leave now in the guestbook at my website mozgov.pro )))