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For Panevėžys Lietkabelis, this season is very changeable so far: in the first two rounds of Betsafe-LKL, the team failed, then defeated Kaunas Žalgiris, but lost to Bologna Virtus in the European Cup in the middle of the week.
Meanwhile, Klaipeda residents march victorious on the home front: two victories were scored during two encounters, allowing the students of Tomas Gaidamavičius, along with Vilnius “Rytas”, to remain the only teams that have not yet experienced the defeat in the Lithuanian championship.
But the results are not the end of the story. As coastal team player Žygimantas Janavičius told LKL.lt, the team’s game is not yet the one that would fully satisfy basketball players.
“The game is not really what we want yet, we watch videos, sometimes we get angry on the field, there is so much sporting anger, but the beginning of the season is good for that. We had defeated rivals, we did not waste points, because this year every point, especially at home, is important, we are happy with the victory, but the game is still far from what we want.
I think we will make and improve that game even more. Sure, you’d like to avoid those pits, but they happen every season. It is a pity that we did not enter the Champions League, but perhaps now it is easier to stay stable and not fall into the pits like last year ”, the basketball player shared with LKL.lt.
It is for the reason mentioned by him that this season will be different for the Klaipeda team than the team has been used to in recent years.
Neptūnas basketball players have been competing in various European tournaments all along, but this year they fell in Bulgaria in the Champions League playoffs and will have to focus only on local battalions.
Ž. According to Janavičius, we can see pros and cons.
Neptune has been playing in a European tournament for many years in a row, and each of those matches brings far more benefits than coaching. There is resentment, but we also look from the other side, the format of the Champions League has changed, there are not many games and it is not clear how that tournament will develop due to the virus.
We came back from Bulgaria, we did several tests in a row, we have to be in self-isolation and we can only go to train, it makes life more difficult for us, it is interesting as if we were playing in a European tournament.
It is a shame, but we will look from the better side, we will work more individually and accumulate for local fights, it is important to be as high as possible, “said Alytus, who started the second season in the port city.
He also alluded to the unusual and untested procedure when a team returning from a Champions League qualifying tournament in Bulgaria had to isolate itself and was only allowed to come and go from practice.
“We returned, after landing the same night we all did the tests, they all tested negative, but by law we still have to do mandatory isolation. We filled out the applications so we could go to trainings and everything, ”Ž said. Janavičius.
On Saturday, Neptūnas will likely face the most serious test of this season: last year’s bronze medalist Lietkabelis, albeit wavy.
When asked about the strengths of this team, he highlighted the defenders, but stressed that it will be extremely difficult for the team to replace last season’s leader Željko Šakičius.
“I watched his matches against Virtus, it is very difficult to say, only at the beginning of the season, many players have changed, as well as the defenders. I had a creative player in the position of” fourth number “(Željko Šakičius – LKL.lt) , they had strong defenders who liked to pitch, also this year, but last year they gave them a lot – Sakiai, so it’s unclear now how they’ll find that balance.
Kyle Viñales is very strong individually, but there have been games in which he has not attacked, but he does not stop, he does and he does, but the team is somewhat knocked out.
I like their game itself, they play a lot “out of motion”, a lot two-on-two, but a lot of them play to create a pitch for themselves rather than somehow gain an advantage for the team, you can put a foot down for them.
But this is just the beginning of the season, I think they will really come together and we see that they have potential: they defeated “Žalgiris”, the match against “Virtus” was really persistent, only that third half … The poor section was played by both teams there, there were many mistakes, but Virtus escaped faster and gained an advantage.
We have already seen the Euroleague games, many of those errors, it is seen that 5-6 months without basketball have balanced. It seems that basketball is the same, but not everyone has played so much yet ”, considered the 31-year-old player.
The Klaipėda players played their last match on Monday, while Lietkabelis played two days later. However, Ž. Janavičius does not believe that at the current stage of the season, this could be an advantage for the guests at Saturday’s game.
“If they had played on the trip, then maybe those trips would be a bit unbalanced. But they played at home, they had a few days to recover, so I think sometimes it’s even better to have more matches when you’re constantly at that pace.
I don’t think they are going to have problems because they played at home, ”said the basketball player.
However, the Betsafe experts consider Panevėžys to be the favorite in this duel and give them almost a 72 percent chance of winning.
The fourth round of the championship already started on Friday with the victory of Vilnius “Rytas” in the 90:80 trip against Alytus “Dzūkija, the rest of the match will be played during the weekend.
On Saturday, Utena’s neighbors, local basketball players Juventus and Kėdainiai ‘Nevėžio-Optibet’, who have started the season, will meet in Utena. Watch the broadcast of the match from 5 pm on LKL.lt, and Betsafe experts give the people of Utena an advantage (69.8%).
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Prietai CBet will host basketball players from Šiauliai who are still looking for their first victory. Watch the match broadcast from 4 pm on LKL.lt. Betsafe experts believe that the Antanas Sireika students will have to wait a little longer for their first victory: favorites with almost a 75 percent chance of winning here are considered Dieniai.
The tour will end with a Sunday visit from the country’s champions Kaunas “Žalgiris” to Pasvalys and a meeting with the local “Milk Stars”.
Betsafe assures that Martin Schiller’s troops will not have many problems at the start and gives them more than a 91 percent chance of victory.
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