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Kaunas team “Žalgiris” finished the first round of the Euroleague with the tenth victory, when they broke the ALBA basketball players 74:71 in Berlin. The Krepsinis.net portal provides the most interesting duel accents.
All about the defense of ALBA. Many expected to see a successful match, as ALBA was one of the worst in terms of defense and Žalgiris was one of the best in attack. Such a forecast was already shattered in the first half, when ALBA offered a very tough defense. And it wasn’t the famous zone defense that the Žalgiris people struggled with last year, when they missed 3-pointers and missed. This time ALBA has not taken any risk, since “Žalgiris” is one of the best in the Euroleague from the perimeter, so he chose Stepouto or trap (trap) defense. Often it was just an imitation when an opponent takes a step towards the player with the ball but immediately returns. The “Žalgiris” lacked a better reading of the situations during the first half, and especially in the first, when the rival makes a stairsand whenever it imitates. We have seen that up to 9 mistakes were made in the first quarter, loose balls were generally avoided in the second quarter and 8 errors were made during the second half of the match.
ALBA took a kind of risk when it left the decisions to the Žalgiris centers in defense. They were the ones who had to decide how to end the attack: make a pass or break it themselves. There were those hesitations, but Joffrey Lauvergne bravely broke his opponents with tackles, and even Martin Geben scored points in the last second of the quarter by throwing the ball into the basket. Agustín Rubit only received one foul in the first half and was limited by it, so the American played just 11 minutes. When the Frenchman played so well, A. Rubito’s services were not much needed, but he was on the field in 10.5 minutes. “Žalgiris” scored 13 points more than its competitors, which is the absolute best indicator of “plus / minus”, as the closest Žalgiris stood at plus 4.
Another important thing was that ALBA seized a weapon from Žalgiris who had so much fun during this series of victories – three points – 0/7 attempts in 19 minutes and only then did Nigel Hayes stab a long shot from the edge. The Žalgiris people did not have good attacking opportunities, so there were no such precise shots from the perimeter. “Žalgiris” also adapted to the rivals this time, winning by scoring just 5 points from three of 15 attempts, reminiscent of last week’s game against Bayern Munich, when 6 long shots were fired. We have seen how “Žalgiris” depends on a triple, but it is gratifying that the team knows how to win without this very important element.
An interesting nuance of ALBA’s defense was against Lukas Lekavičius and Rokas Jokubaitis, when they almost provoked them to fight, and then help came and the Žalgiris had to throw the ball, but the opponents were already waiting on the transmission lines. L. Lekavičius himself exploded as if waiting for the opponents to whistle the foul, but the referees were silent. The performance of this player has dropped significantly in recent times and only captures an average of 5.5 points.
R. Jokubaitis also had many difficulties, who still scratched 6 points when his colleague Lukas was left with 4, and Thomas Walkup did not stand out from the game at all (0/5 shots) and took only a penalty. The main player of “Žalgiris” is going through a very blank period: during the last victory of 5 matches, he scores only 4.2 points, makes 4.6 effective passes and accumulates 6.4 utility points. There is certainly no tragedy in that as he is not an attack oriented player and his job is to organize the game and defend credibly.
Marius Grigonis’s life was complicated. ALBA was perfectly prepared to stop M. Grigonis, against whom there was a double defense and the former player who was next to him was in constant contact with the Žalgiris leader, which made him very nervous. Aito García Renacimiento, when preparing the game plan, knew M. Grigonis well and chose a very suitable tactic. The fact that M. Grigonis was eliminated from the crayons was perfectly illustrated when he pushed the opponent with his left hand while playing on the perimeter and was fouled on the attack. The leader made a lot of mistakes when he didn’t have a place to put the ball: he merged 4 times. No matter how difficult the evening was for the “Žalgiris” star, he spoke his word and threw great shots at the decisive moment, and his 4 penalties established victory at the decisive moment. M. Grigonis proved once again what a great player he is, because he is able to register solid statistics even in very difficult matches for him, when the opponents defended with their teeth on the shirt: 12 points and 14 points.
Target: Artūras Milaknis. Martin Schiller’s students spent the first 10 minutes adapting to ALBA’s very aggressive and highly mobile defense. There were many problems in attack, but there were many gaps in defense, where the “one-on-one” duel lost by Žalgiris came to mind. Jayson Granger or Maodo Lo did not shy away from competing head to head with their direct opponent and this resulted in a result.
The most useful for the ALBA team was the attack by A. Milaknis with Simone Fontecchio, 203 cm high. In reviewing the future opponent, we noted that this is the “X factor” player, as he can cause a lot of problems in any match. This time he used a weak veteran defense and thus collected his points, scoring a total of 14, bouncing 5 more balls, making 4 assists and recording a profit of 16 points. As a result, Schiller was forced to use Hayes in a light forward position, where he played about 10 minutes of his 33, which he spent on the floor in total. Hayes’ confidence and solidity have become key in this match, and the further he advances, the more it seems that this American could sign his strongest contract as a player in this position rather than as a tough advantage, as the Euroleague urgently needs Strong “third numbers”.
The good play of Paulius Jankūnas, when N. Hayes rested or was an easy advantage, was vital for “Žalgiris”. The veteran also did not disappoint this time: in 17 minutes he scored 6 points, grabbed 7 balls and registered an efficiency of 13 points. The captain accumulates a double digit number of utility points during 5 consecutive games. Coincidence or not, but “Žalgiris” won all those matches.
Decisive details of the minute. Before the last minute, Maodo Lo lost a triple that could have advanced ALBA, and “Žalgiris” responded with a lightning attack and in his first stage A. Milaknis scored a triple from the edge of the field, which was the first in this duel . The veteran had no doubts about his chances and remembered a bit the match against “Fenerbahche” from Istanbul, when Milas scored a triple, but Šarūnas Jasikevičius yelled at him so much that he heard the whole arena. This time no one yelled at the sniper and the winners are not on trial. It was a good shot, but many would hesitate and play a longer attack in such a situation, as “Žalgiris” had a 2-point lead.
Another important episode: “Žalgiris” attack was chaotic and Th.Walkup attacked by force from a medium distance. The launch was inaccurate and 15 seconds later J.Lauvergne pushed himself out of the limit and delivered the ball, which sent hard behind the three-point line, where, fortunately, he was a teammate. Often in such cases, coaches ask to avoid throwing the ball by throwing it anywhere, because if an opponent catches it, there would be easy points for the “Žalgiris” basket, which could have equalized the result. As in the case of A. Milaknis, the winner is not judged now, because Žalgiris, and not the ALBA player, found himself at the time and place.
conclusion. “Žalgiris” played a match for the second week in a row, which can be called “dog slaughter”. This is much more gratifying than the three-point victories at Baskonia in Vitoria or Fenerbahche in Istanbul, since it is in this duel that characters are trained and the team is strengthened. Especially since to win against rivals like CSKA Moscow or Barcelona Barcelona, it can only be done with a style in which not everything is according to your plan, when each attack requires taking off the opponents, when often you are on the parquet and nobody registers fouls. It looked great how “Žalgiris” took advantage of the mistakes of his rivals: they scored up to 18 points, which is even a quarter of the total. Opponents were allowed to bounce too many balls in attack (14), of which they scored 11 points, but Žalgiris didn’t lag too far behind and scored 8 points from 8 second chances, which is a good indicator.
ALBA surprised on the bright side as it did not have Peyton Siva, Marcus Eriksson, Ben Lammers, and at the beginning of the last quarter, the best player was Luke Sikma, whose experience would be much needed in such a dramatic duel. Also, the basketball players in Berlin had no man. Coach and did not train for a few days before the duel while waiting for the results of the coronavirus tests. So the boss. The Israeli González, who worked as a coach, was afraid to keep the feet of his players. At the same time, ALBA’s batteries were really dead when Žalgiris had a 9-point lead, but overall “yellow” played a good game.
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