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Starting on December 4, Žalgiris’ undefeated team will attempt to extend the series of victories to a record on Wednesday night, but it will be inhumanly difficult to achieve the seventh consecutive victory, as the Moscow CSKA Euroleague players will be in the other side of the field.
The Muscovites, who have just added a 12-win streak, only fell in Vitoria last week when their successful run, which lasted more than two months, was interrupted.
“We are going on a trip to Russia, first to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg,” Kaunas team strategist Martin Schiller said before the trip to Russia. – CSKA is, of course, a very good, experienced and talented team. The most important characteristic of them is that they accumulate points to perfection. They have a lot of talented players in attack. They are good and team oriented, but they also have individual talents. Of course, Mike James must stand out here.
CSKA throws a lot of 3-pointers; according to this indicator, he is second in the Euroleague (in fact, third – ed.). They are excellent for fighting for balls in attack, especially Shengelia, Milutinov and Bolomboy. It will be a great challenge to control these aspects. “
Eriko Ovcharenko / 15min nuotr./Rungtynių akimirka
Žalgiris had an unexpected amount of time to prepare for the trip to Moscow. Due to COVID-19 cases, Žalgiris’s matches in the Lithuanian Basketball League, which were to take place on Sunday, were canceled at the Pasvalys Pieno Žvaigždės club. How did this change the Kaunas team’s plans?
“It helped us,” Schiller said. – On Sunday, when we had to play, we made it a day off, and on Monday and Tuesday we trained and prepared for a double week. From a training and fitness perspective, it helped us. “
This was neither the first nor the second postponed match for “Žalgiris” LKL. Almost mid-January, Kaunas has played just 12 of 36 regular season games. Is the Žalgiris strategist happy with the respite and perhaps on the contrary just worried about his team’s busy schedule in the future?
Eriko Ovcharenko / 15min nuotr./Martinas Schilleris
“First of all, it’s not good just because the match is postponed for very bad reasons. Has this freed up our agenda in multiple situations? Yes. But looking at the bigger picture, we need to see why the match was postponed, and we can’t see that as a good thing.
As for the future, I don’t know and I don’t think anyone else knows. Not only are our games postponed, but everyone else’s. I don’t know when they will be played. But all the LKL teams and the league itself will try to find a common solution that is suitable and fair for all, ”said the Austrian.
On Wednesday night in Moscow, M. Schiller and all the “Žalgiris” teams face a difficult challenge to stop CSKA leader Mike James.
In November in Kaunas, in the match won by CSKA 87:78, the leader of the Red Army threw up to 27 points, and overall this season accumulates 20.5 points per match.
When asked by Basketnews journalist Jonas Miklovas whether to place James in the top three or five best basketball players in the Euroleague, the Austrians cleverly avoided a direct answer.
“Now I will read in the press that ‘Martin Schiller rated him as one of the five or three best basketball players,'” laughed the Austrian. – I’ll just say that – we’re talking about one of the top three teams and the player who dominates it, so it really should be high in the player rankings. But I’m sorry, I can’t say exactly what it would have raised. “
Eriko Ovcharenko / 15min nuotr./Rungtynių akimirka
Not only CSKA, but also Zenit’s challenge in St. Petersburg awaits Žalgiris this week. Kaunas will play on Friday against Xavi Pascualis, who is in fourth place in the tournament. Can it be said that such a double week is the most difficult challenge for “Žalgiris” this season?
“First of all, it is very difficult just because of the schedule. Two games in three days, it’s a challenge. But we are not the only team expecting such a challenge, so we cannot complain. Of course, we will play against teams that line up high after the first round and deserve to be there, but, as I said last week, the Euroleague is a very quiet tournament. Here, each team can beat any other, so even if we don’t play against these teams, but against other teams, I would still say that we are facing a difficult test, “said M. Schiller.
We will play against teams that line up high after the first round and deserve to be there.
This season, many teams from Russia brought back nasty “waiters” – players infected with coronavirus. Both the ALBA clubs in Berlin and the Olympiacos clubs in Piraeus had such participation. Will Žalgiris take additional measures before the trip to Russia?
“No, we will not take additional security measures. We are already using high security standards, so I don’t see where we can go further. We have to believe and pray that everything goes well not only for ourselves, but also for other teams.” said M. Schiller.
We must believe and pray that things go well.
The confrontation between Žalgiris and CSKA will begin at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday.
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