The dark stretch is over: how Žalgiris ended the month-and-a-half wait for victories

The Kaunas “Žalgiris” used to leave Athens in a bad mood than in a good mood, but now everything was different. Kaunas residents managed to win the match against Athens Panathinaikos for the second time in the last 18 years and this, with brief stops, gave them a lot of confidence in style.

This is a reflection of the fact that the legendary Greek club is no longer a destructive force in Europe this season, and it doesn’t even have obvious line-up advantages over many teams. PAO, meanwhile, are an extremely unpredictable team this year, which could knock down teams like Bayern, Fenerbahce or make Anadolu Efes and CSKA nervous until the final seconds.

But this time “Žalgiris” removed the surprise factor, and the stage in which teams of his level will meet more often began with confidence. Panathinaikos scored a total of 69 points for the Kaunas basketball team in the Greek basketball mecca OAKA arena. For Žalgiris, this is the second best defense show this season and only the first of its kind after that impressive series of wins at the start of the season in October.

The main reason for a good defense is that based on the PAO’s attacking profile, Žalgiris was almost ideal for its widely used defense system in the season, the main idea of ​​which is to push defenders to the side, eliminate the possibility of attacks towards them and close the penalty area.

For those more closely following the Euroleague, the Panathinaika team raised a number of questions in the summer. Here’s the perimeter coach Georgios vovoras uses extremely wavy Shelviną Macką, the frustration of the season Marcusą Fosterį, Howard Sant-Rossa, Ioannį Papapetrou and undoubtedly a leader Nemanją Nedovičić.

Out of this entire company, only an individually capable Serb requires special attention, but in the 30 minutes he scored only 2 points out of three out of 7, so apart from a one-time error defending against him, “Žalgiris” eliminated the N. Nedovičius factor. At the time, Papapetrou and Sant-Roos were obvious risk targets, not avoiding throwing from afar, but they never had a stable pitch. There were no miracles in the OAKA arena Friday night – the tandem hit only one long pitch at a time.

Overall, Panathinaikos didn’t have many free throws in this match, or those shots were the result of Žalgiris risks. PAO was not very flexible in the attack to the basket and played most of the game according to the tone set by the Žalgiris defense.

“It just came to our notice then. They kept throwing the ball, which is what we wanted them to do,” he was delighted. Marius Grigonis.

“The worst and angriest is the fact that we couldn’t use any of our advantages on defense and attack. In general, we allow them to score points on defense, without even trying to defend themselves, ”G. Vovoras angrily evaluated the performance of the students after the game.

Generally physically strong and long Georgioso Papagiannio The hand PAO was the second best team in the Euroleague to fight for the ball before this match, but the effort and concentration of the “Žalgiris” team also eliminated this factor: the Kaunas players caught 12 balls in attack and the hosts caught 11 balls.

“Žalgiris” was in danger more than once in this match, but the feeling that M. Schiller’s men are not letting go of fundamental control has not gone away. From the first minutes of the game, “Žalgiris” got up with a clear idea and attacked the basket. Here target # 1 – the 221cm tall giant G. Papagiannis.

Of the two-to-two situations, most were born after the exchanges and much faster after the Joffrey Lauvergne’o points, whose execution was precisely the work of the creators and corrected. M. Grigonis also skilfully played against the giant, who, in addition to the scorched triples, skilfully acted closer to the basket.

“Žalgiris” hit the PAO club hard during G. Papagiannis, but overall G. Vovor did not deprive Kaunas of rivalries in attack. From the very beginning of the match with ASVEL or with Real clubs, the first variants of attacks by “Žalgiris” were closed with shots in the early stages, which caused the team to suffocate in the positional and sticky attack, but now M. Schiller had his hands wide open and the freedom to have a tangible first part. advantage.

It is also a rare case that “Žalgiris” threw only seven free throws, and during the first two halves, none at all. This indicator generally shows the team’s lack of aggression, which was also noted by the Žalgiris coach after the match, but this time you may disagree with that.

“Žalgiris” hit 13 long shots, of which 6 belong to M. Grigonis, he developed good shots closer to the basket or even in the penalty area, and in the end the sum of 81 points obtained shows a good attack. Therefore, the fact that Žalgiris were extremely rare guests on the penalty kick line is rather the result of PAO’s softness, inability to use, and tactical fouls.

Lithuanian characters are also noteworthy in Žalgiris. Here, M. Grigonis played the worst game of the season in the fight against Barcelona a week ago, when only one utility point was collected. And now he’s hitting 6 out of 8 long shots and he’s even breaking a career record. He also successfully creates teams for friends, with excellent insight into defending PAO’s weaknesses.

At that time, the club’s talent was already widely sung. Rokas Jokubaitis he played a catastrophic three halves that in no way equaled that level, even committing unprovoked errors in attack. At the same time, however, the youngster joins a completely different modality in the fourth quarter and accumulates 10 of his team’s 12 points in a single section.

In such a situation, the coach’s confidence is extremely important, and M. Schiller deserves a good word here. With the 20-year-old burning for the first three halves, it would seem calmer to leave him on the bench, but the Austrian still threw the player down when the match was broken, and R. Jokubaitis justified the manager’s attitude with plenty.

By the way, after the game in unusual style, the captain openly recounted. Paulius Jankūnas, as for the possible reasons for the start of a weak defender.

“It just came to our knowledge then. Everybody talks, creates interviews, stories, second hand. Although he has a good education, thanks to the parents, he is still young. Newbie Exchange, all the explorers are calling. I think those thoughts they still live in your mind and make it more difficult to focus on them. But here is the work of us older ones, and today we have repeated that Roka, focus. We will continue to emphasize this to you and try to get you out of that attention bubble so that you can concentrate and be the Rock that is always there, ”P. Jankūnas opened widely.

Despite the victory, there should still be more than one problem in Schiller’s office on Nemunas Island. Concerns should be raised about Lauvergne’s instability and the question whether Rubit is certainly not a stronger option at the midfielder position. The gap in the light-edged striker position doesn’t go away anywhere. This time around, he solidly moved N. Heyes, but he’s intrigued by what such a positional struggle will look like against next-level opponents.

More importantly, however, Žalgiris, who had the longest series of losses in the Euroleague, was finally released. Both from the swamp of defeats and from the mind, psychologically. November was incredibly difficult for the residents of Kaunas, but now the team will have a chance to significantly replenish the victory tally and consolidate their positions in the top ten approaches at least until early January.

This Friday’s game in the Greek capital showed that Žalgiris has the potential to do it.

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