The CSKA, which arrived in Kaunas, is a competitor with the weapons necessary to highlight all the gaps in “Žalgiris”

On Tuesday, the Kaunas “Žalgiris” team in the Euroleague will start a double-week home match with the CSKA Moscow team.

In recent years, the duel between Muscovites and Kaunas has been very tenacious: Žalgiris has won 3 times in the last seven games, and the differences between the teams have been minimal: 5, 3, 12, 2, 2, 5, 3 , so the average winning team made it just 4.6 points apart.

The still reigning EuroLeague champions come after a bit of such commotion within the team, as Mike James got angry with Dimitri Itoudis and therefore was not even registered for a duel with “Baskonia” from Vitoria. The American flew to Kaunas and should appear on the parquet.

Russian journalists interviewed by Krepsinis.net said that the bubble in the Greek media was a bit inflated from all the stories because it was too far away before the termination of the contract and not even talked about. Conspiracy theorists even thought that James would want his contract terminated and that he would sign a contract with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the coming weeks.

James is individually one of the best players in the Euroleague and overall he’s in the Top 3 of the best basketball players in the entire league. “Žalgiris” will have to deal with a huge headache, how to deal with this player, who can play against any specialist in defense and take 11.4 shots in 31 minutes this season, allowing him to generate 16.4 points. James still makes 5.3 assists, but makes a mistake as many as 3.4 times, reducing his efficiency to 15 points.

The CSKA leader against Žalgiris made a victorious shot in last season’s match in Moscow and scored a total of 19 points and 18 points. So far, James is breaking his playing style and has thrown more triples than doubles (43:37) when there has been no such phenomenon in previous seasons. Of course, so far the shot is too small and at the end of the season everything can take its place.

We will not see defender Janis Strelniekis and Johannes Voigtmann, who suffers from coronavirus, in the Moscow team. D.Itoudis also defeated with two nominal players and the young Alexander Chomenka on the defense line against Vitoria Baskonia.

In his career game against the former team, Darrunas Hilliardas, who scored 31 points, scored 32 points, hitting 7 3-pointers of 10. The American team is impressive from distance this season: 48.6 percent. (17/35), therefore, the people of Žalgiris will have to be very careful on the perimeter.

Daniel Hackett strikes even better from afar: The 196cm tall Italian, who has never had sniper qualities, has so far fired 18 of 32 (56.3%) shots from the perimeter. The percentage should drop during the season, but it’s worth noting that the player already posted 44.2 percent last season. accuracy.

With D.Hackett on the field, CSKA can confidently swap defenders, as with his height and physical qualities he can defend against opponents of at least three positions. D. Hackett played a career match against Crvena Zvezda in the fifth round in Belgrade: 29 points (6/8 triples) and even 39 utility points. Interestingly, the organizer of the attack often chooses a foul: his average in 26 minutes is 3.5 In the last 6 Euroleague matches, he committed 4 fouls.

Nikita Kurbanov, who is the only Russian to play a bigger role in the team, appears in fifth place as a lightweight forward. The 34-year-old veteran, who has defensive duties, scored just 3.8 points in 22 minutes and is out of his field in the decisive moments of the game. It is worth noting that N. Kurbanov realizes his possibilities, because he usually attacks free: 2/8 of two points and 6/13 of three points. This player’s defense index is the second best on the team (87.4 points per 100 attacks), only behind J. Strelniek (84.2 points per 100 attacks).

Will Clyburn rises from the bench and can assist in both the light edge forward position and the heavy edge position. It is with W. Clyburn on the field that CSKA plays decisive moments, and this American even surpasses M. James in terms of performance and utility: he scores 17.3 points and 16.3 useful points in 28 minutes. Cllyburn throws 11.5 points to the basket, which is also a number ahead of James. These two Americans are the main magicians of CSKA.

For Žalgiris, W. Clubburn is a very threatening opponent as he is a very strong “third number” who can play both with his back and facing the basket and is well versed in exploiting opponents’ weaknesses. “Žalgiris” does not have a real light edge and CSKA will definitely use it, so the figure of W. Cllyburn will be very important and visible on Tuesday.

So far, Tornike Shengelia, who has cost the CSKA team 1 million euros, is skipping. Georgia scores 9.5 points in 26 minutes, rebounds 6.6, makes 2.6 assists and scores 12.4 utility points. The heavy winger attacking from afar is just terrible: 4/21 (19 percent).

Shengelia has received much criticism in the Russian media for failing to exceed the 9-point limit in four consecutive games. Teammates from Russia told Krepsinis.net that D. Itoudis is satisfied with this player’s contribution and the way he has adapted to his role. Meanwhile, the Greek immediately rejects criticism from fans and journalists and avoids discussing the issue.

In the middle forward position, CSKA also has a non-reflective rookie: Nikol Milutinov. The 213 cm tall Serbian shone in the Olympiacos team in Piraeus, where he recorded statistics of 10.3 points and 19.2 utility points, but now in CSKA clothing he scored only 4.4 points and 8.6 points in 17 minutes. So far N. Milutinov has played only 5 matches in the Euroleague because he was sick with coronavirus. During the first two games, he was only 8 minutes on the field, but lately he has been receiving more and more and with Baskonia it has been used for 29 minutes, but even then he did not catch up: 7 points and 6 utility points and only 2 balls caught. The “Žalgiris” has problems against such high centers, so the Serbian can shine and at least for the first time exceed the number of double-digit points.

Joel Bolomboy, who plays at 22 minutes, is averaging 5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6.3 utility points for CSKA. This center, which has acquired Russian citizenship, is a reliable endorsement that brings a lot of energy and athleticism. Semionas Antonovas usually appeared on the field only in three matches and played only 6 minutes later, but before Žalgiris we will see him more, because there will be no J.Voigtmann.

In short, it can be remembered that CSKA tightened its belt in the summer, at least on paper, where its costs fell below 40 million. up to 26.7 million euros. However, this did not prevent the strengthening of the position in which Dimitri Itoudis’s students had perhaps more problems: the front line. Kostas Koufos swallowed 1.5 million. euros, but did nothing and instead bought a slightly more expensive N. Milutinov. Andrejs Voroncevičius, a long-time player who lost around 1 million players during the season, was dropped at the “fourth theme” position. euros, and was replaced by a slightly more expensive T. Shengelia, which is certainly a more useful player. It is true that the painful loss belongs to Kyle Hines, who was a defender of the defense, captain and leader in the locker room.

Interesting detail: CSKA have lost three Lithuanian-led teams this season: to Kazys Maksvytis’s “Parma” in Perm, Šarūnas Jasikevičius’s “Barcelona” in Barcelona and Rimas Kurtinaitis’s “Chimki” in the Moscow region.

“Žalgiris”, of course, is not trained by a Lithuanian, but by an Austrian Martin Schiller, who has had a lot of headaches in recent days. Žalgiris’ beautiful home began to crumble in Tel Aviv, where he lost by 28 points, followed by the Lithuanian Basketball League (Betsafe-LKL) match with Prienai CBet, which Žalgiris won after extra time (103: 100) , but twice before. In the week in the Euroleague, Thomas Walkup played 24 minutes, Joffrey Lauvergne – 25, Nigel Hayes – 27, Artūras Milaknis – even 34. By the way, the Frenchman still suffered a minor injury, but should appear on the floor. Instead of playing Marekas Blaževičius and Karolis Lukošiūnas (5 min.), The people of Žalgiris annoyed the main players when CSKA rested and prepared for the Euroleague fights, because they had no match in the United League.

It will be interesting to see what reaction the “Žalgiris” players will show after M. Schiller’s angry conversation in the locker room on Sunday and the failed section recently. It will be even more interesting if the strategist makes any adjustments to the defense, as the ice system has already been examined, as we saw last week. A smart specialist like D.Itoudis will have prepared all the options of how to create good shots in attack and the players will have to take them, as Maccabi’s free triples demonstrated. In attack, Žalgiris will have to work hard, because CSKA have good basketball defenders and it will be difficult both on the perimeter and in the penalty area. The match in Kaunas will traditionally start at 8pm.

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