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The Kaunas “Žalgiris” team kicks off the stage, which will put an end to the battles of the first round of the Euroleague and will face the rivals of “their league”.
Four of the five opponents in the standings are outside the top eight – only Bayern Munich is at the top of the table, but this is not a team called the big tournament like Barcelona Barcelona or CSKA Moscow.
The first contender is the Panathinaikos Athens Club, which was defeated before this season. It happened in mid-September when opponents were defeated 81:74 in a friendly tournament.
In recent years, the PAO has been a contender, even the great tournament has been threatened, but the budget has been shrinking and this season the Greek wallet is around 10 million euros, which is a record low for this great . Last season, he had about $ 14 million. euros. It all has to do with the fact that the PAO is for sale, and now there are legends of Fragiska Alvertis and Dimitris Diamantidis, and the charismatic and scandalous owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos is no longer actively involved and is only waiting for buyers.
PAO started saving when Rick Pitino was replaced by Georgios Vovor, an assistant. By the way, this specialist was a temporary boss. coach and then in Kaunas he put “Žalgiris”. The American is said to have earned around 800,000. and the current strategist is four times cheaper.
There is no need to pay a huge salary to Nick Calathes, who left for Barcelona and thus marked a new beginning of the Panathinaikos era. It can be said that the Athens team is now going through a transition period in which there are no goals to reach the quarter-finals. Although the ambitions of the club’s leaders waned, this did not happen with the fans, who had already demanded the head of G. Vovor after several consecutive failures. Bettors believe that it is this specialist who will be the first in the Euroleague to lose his place.
Perhaps this would have happened if the PAO’s two somewhat unexpected victories, in the eleventh round at home, defeated the Bayern side 83:76 and brought out a virtually lost match in Milan, 80:77 last week. So the great Greek with 4 wins in 11 rounds still keeps his head above water and has a game postponed with Zenit St Petersburg in reserve.
“Chaotic and poorly organized” is how Panathinaikos can be described. There are several reasons for this: lack of coaching experience and lack of a good player. The season was started by Pierre Jackson, who scored 18 points in the basket for “Žalgiris” in Kaunas, but was quickly fired, temporarily replaced by Keifer Sykes, and now Shelvin Mack, who did not belong to AX Armani last year, arrived.
According to the defense assessment, “Žalgiris” is still the last in the Euroleague (104.3 points are lost in 100 attacks), but “Panathinaikos” also does not jump to the opponents’ basket and surpasses Žalgiris by only two positions: 102 points are lost in 100 attacks. People from Žalgiris have a 5th attack rating and the PAO only 10th. Obviously, this team has a lot of problems on both sides of the field.
PAOs are not saved by long shots, which emit a lot, but only 36.1 percent. hitting only allows 14th place. According to shots from short and medium distance (52.2%), he is in tenth position, and in terms of successful passes, only in eleventh position. The biggest difference between the teams is in the fight for balls, where Panathinaikos, who recovers 34.4 balls per game, is in the fourth tournament, and Žalgiris, who catches 29.1 balls, is unfortunately the last. This aspect can be especially important on Friday.
On the front line is the well-known 220cm tall Georgios Papagiannis and it is disturbing, as generally Žalgiris people with such high centers had a lot of problems. The giant, who scores 9.2 points and bounces after 6 balls, is the most useful player on the team: 13.9 points. He is replaced by Kostas Mitoglou (7.8 points, 9.5 points), who can play hard near the basket, but is also dangerous to attack from further away.
Aaron White, who started the season very weak, feels better and better in the position of the big advantage forward, but recently he has improved his form and now the former Žalgiris player registers decent statistics: 20 minutes, 7.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 8.3 utility score.
The other two front-line players play disappointingly: Ben Bentil, who is in the team for the second season (10 minutes, 3.6 points), and Zach Auguste, who recovered. This tall man shone at Galatasaray in Istanbul and was one of the best center-backs in the European Cup, but in the Euroleague he failed to adapt, so he only has 9 minutes to score, averaging 3.4 points and 3.7 utility scores.
Ioannis Papapetrou stands out for his number of minutes, competing even after 31 minutes. and 43 sec. during the match. Only Alexei Švedas spends more time on the Euroleague floor (32 min. And 4 sec.). Not in vain G. Vovor trusts the old man so much, because he does not have equivalent shifts and I. Papapetrou plays a lot even when he has a black day. Greece ranks second in terms of points earned (12.1 points) and in terms of utility points (10.3 points), but so far only 26.7 percent yield three points. (12/45) precision. The Papapetrou factor can be very important, as “Žalgiris” has a gap at the “third number” position and an even shorter rotation at this position.
The Greek is usually replaced by Marcus Foster, who is a defender and debutant in the Euroleague. The American started the season averaging 12.8 points over 4 rounds, but now his form has dropped dramatically and Vovor no longer trusts this individually capable American, as evidenced by his number of minutes in the last three rounds, just 6.5. . Foster’s biggest problem is punching defense and he won’t have any more minutes until he gets past it, but he’s really talented in attack and can cause a lot of trouble for opponents in separate matches.
At quarterback, Howard Sant-Roos slides between the position of the player and the attacking defender. The American often does a lot of invisible work on defense, but he has 25 points and a utility score of 9.9 in 25 minutes, so he also has a role to play in attack. 4.2 effective transfer – the best indicator in a team where there is a great shortage of developers.
The team’s biggest star and most expensive player is Nemanja Nedovičius. The defender’s career is still hampered by injuries, but he has only missed one game so far this season. By the way, only K. Mitoglou and G. Papagianis have played all 11 games; other players have missed at least one game.
N.Nedovičius scores 14.1 points in 27 minutes, but only accumulates 12 utility points. This is due to making a mistake 2 times per game and limping the shot: 44 percent. colon and 38.2 percent. three points. By the way, the Serbian makes 3.6 assists, but his main function is to attack the basket. At the beginning of the season, he scored 2 utility points in three rounds, but is now gaining momentum as needed, and in the last three rounds, his efficiency has reached 18 points. The defenders of “Žalgiris” will have a lot of work to stop this sharp player, who can explode, and sport a triple in his hands. G.Vovoras has given N. Nedovičius total freedom and does not put him on the bench for mistakes or illogical decisions.
Sh.Mackas played an important role as soon as he arrived, scoring 9.6 points and accumulating 7.2 utility points in 18 minutes. It is true that the American statistic is very enriched by the 33 points and 34 efficiency points scored in the first two rounds, since he scored only 15 points and 2 points in the next three. The contrast is high and the latest figures better reflect Sh.Mack’s actual capabilities, as he also looked very weak in the ranks of AX Armani last year.
Several players in the rotation were not mentioned: Georgios Kalaitzakis, who played in Kėdainiai “Nevėžis” last season, who even made the top five in two games, but did not stay on the field for long. Leonid Kaselaki plays after 12 minutes and scores 2.7 points, while Lefter Bochoridis scores 4.6 points in 15 minutes and scores 4 utility points each.
G.Vovor has a trump card in his hands that he can use a very wide rotation and use all 12 players. The level of reserve basketball players is certainly not high, which is especially evident in the Greek action, but several variations are possible in certain sections, especially in the second row. Meanwhile “Žalgiris” will have to press for even more minutes and Marius Grigonis, Thomasas Walkupas, Lukas Lekavičius and Rokas Jokubaitis will wait a long minute on the field and a lot of work on both sides of the field, as “Panathinaikos” tries to play fast and keep rhythm. , since there is a great lack of good organization of the positional attacks.
“Žalgiris”, who is going through a poor stretch, finds himself with a rival, whom he can and must even beat, because he shows a better game. Panathinaikos are known to be a dangerous team that gained confidence after last week’s win over AX Armani and are still considered a dueling favorite by bookmakers, but Žalgiris has several weapons he must use and return home on Friday night to good effect. state of mind before the double week of the Euroleague.
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