The victory in Russia “Žalgiris” was not happy / News

The second consecutive victory in the Euroleague is important, but not very rewarding. This was recognized by Marius Grigonis and Artūras Milaknis, defenders of Kaunas “Žalgiris”, after the match in Mytiščiai.

Meanwhile, Kaunas strategist Martin Schiller said the match went as expected.

“In such a situation, I don’t even want to talk about the match,” Grigonis, who scored 21 points, told Euroleague television after the duel. “I’m glad we played in general and we have to keep going.”

Žalgiris’ match with Chimki came a day late, when the rival club did not receive the results of the coronavirus tests on Friday.

The Russians, who only played seven, collapsed in the middle of the game, when “Žalgiris” won the section 34: 6 at the end of the second half and at the beginning of the third.

“We won, but the game is not happy,” Milaknis told Žalgiris TV. – We have those roller coasters. The start was very bad, without energy. In the second half we started to defend better. After the break we did well. In the last quarter, that defense of the zone was defeated, we did not hit them and they returned to the game, which should not have happened with a rotation like Chimki. “

“First of all, we are very happy with the victory,” Schiller told Žalgiris TV. – The game went as expected. They were short of people, so we needed to play with energy.

We did not expect us to take the initiative early. We broke the game in the third part.

Then Chimki stopped defending the area, it became more difficult for us to attack, our pace in the attack collapsed. I liked that with 4 minutes left in the game and a 10-point lead, we kept a cool head, gained a significant three-point lead and saved the victory. “

Although they led by 20 points (54:34) at the same time, Kaunas was unable to attack the opponents’ zone defense in the fourth quarter and allowed them to get as close as 8 points.

However, the triples of Grigonis and Milaknis closed the match.

“We have a lot of room for improvement,” Milaknis said. “We did not play as expected, we stumbled with the zone and trade defense.”

Chimki entered 8 players for the match, but one of them, Dairis Bertans, was unable to compete, and the other, Vladislav Odinokov, made his Euroleague debut.

“We have 12 players, they are 6-7. That is obvious”, Grigonis mentioned the reason for the victory.

“Statistically, the 8-man rotation is the best, but it doesn’t play that way the entire season,” Schiller told Euroleague television. – I wish Chimki’s team good luck with their trauma and virus. I hope the situation improves for them soon. “

“I want to congratulate Žalgiris on the victory,” Chimki’s strategist Rimas Kurtinaitis said after the duel. – They were stronger tonight. Sure, I don’t want to make excuses, but we have reasons to lose. In the Euroleague it is difficult to play with six players, either at home or away. This is a big problem.

Still, I think our guys did their best. Now we are waiting for the traumatized players to return, as well as those who are being treated for coronavirus.