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The Lithuanian basketball community welcomes a completely different, but no less intriguing, January weekend. Next weekend there will be no duel of the Lithuanian Basketball League (Betsafe-LKL) championship. It is true that there is an important reason for this: it is time to meet the participants of the final four of the Citadele King Mindaugas Cup (KMT).
The fans and even the players themselves were used to LKL matches on the weekends; often at least four, sometimes six different championship matchups took place on Saturday and Sunday.
This time, starting on Saturday and ending on Monday, four return matches of the KMT quarter-final stage will be played, during which the four strongest teams from this year’s tournament, the participants of the four finalists.
The party of the most important matches of the tournament will start on Saturday at 5 pm in Vilnius. Basketball players from Rytas and Utena Juventus will participate in the second battle in the capital.
Rytas and Juventus will meet in the quarterfinals of the KMT tournament for the fifth consecutive year. So far, three out of four times the Vilnius team has reached the final four, and this time a really difficult mission awaits them: Donaldo Kairis’s soldier faces the match with a deficit of 2 points. If Rytas does not win, or wins by less than three points, Juventus will advance to the next stage.
Rytas is now in a crisis where I would not want any team to be. This is a really difficult time. For five years, the situation here is the same: the fight continues until the last seconds. I think it will also last until the last moments of this year.
Instead, it’s like an 80-minute match and now, after two halves, after 40 minutes, two points ahead of Utena. It does not mean anything. This duel will be very interesting, it is also important how each team can prepare for this match ”, said the LKL.lt basketball coach, specialist. Tomas Purlys.
Speaking about the real chances Utena’s team currently has to make it to the final four, T. Purlys made sure that the Žydrūnas Urbonas students just need one more good match. In this case, the opportunity will not slip away for the fifth year in a row.
“I would say that a lot is now in the hands of the Juventus players themselves: if they play a good game, their chances are really good. The overall picture of the current morning is very poor. Utena’s people need a good game and they need take advantage of this opportunity ”, said the specialist.
The next game on Saturday will take place in Panevėžys, where Lietkabelis and Prienai Cbet will meet at 7pm.
It is true that the great intrigue in this duel cannot be created for the people of Priieniai, because Lietkabelis won the first duel in Prienai by 19 points. Nenad Chanak students at home just don’t lose 20 points and a ticket to the four finalists is guaranteed.
However, Cbet has shown once that he can confidently defeat the Panevėžys team. The LKL championship match, which took place on January 6, ended with the victory of Prieniškės by 15 points.
Speaking about the game and the chances of the Panevėžys team in the KMT tournament, T. Purlys assured that they are currently clearly Lithuania’s second team in terms of capacity, so they should not only be in the final four, but also in the big final.
“Žalgiris” and “Lietkabelis” are currently the two best teams in Lithuania, both are already in the final four and I think they should both compete in the final, “considered T. Purlys.
The third counterattack of the KMT quarter-final stage will take place in Klaipėda, where the teams from Neptūnas and Šiauliai will meet on Sunday at 4 pm In the confrontation between Tomas Gaidamavičius and Antanas Sireika, the latter will have a headache a lot higher, since Šiauliai “brings” a deficit of 15 points to the port city.
Neptūnas’ team only need not lose 16 points in Sunday’s game. It is true that immediately after the first KMT quarter-final match, these teams again competed in the LKL championship, where the basketball players of the Šiauliai team had already won by 6 points, so Neptūnas works in this stage are far from complete.
“Perhaps this solid victory for Neptūnas at Šiauliai was the most surprising in the quarter-finals. As we saw in later LKL matches, the picture was reversed. All the other teams played as they should.
I don’t think Neptūnas can lose at home to Šiauliai by 16 points. Of course, there is everything, but it seems that the hosts will be represented in Klaipeda, ”taught T. Purlys.
The last match of the KMT quarterfinals will take place in Kaunas, where the current owner of the cup, the Žalgiris club, will want to finish the work started on Monday at 7pm.
Martin Schiller students will meet again at home with Pasvalys’ Milk Stars. It is true that the match at Pasvalys became a solid step for Žalgiris towards the final four, because the Kaunas team won that match by 16 points.
The Gediminas Petrauskas troops reaching the champions ‘territory will have to work from the shoulder to restore the intrigue: no team in Lithuania has beaten “Žalgiris” by more than 11 points this season, Žalgiris’ team only lost once this season. season.
“Žalgiris” had a few good minutes to break up the match at Pasvalys. Here it is clear. In almost all cases, the current “Žalgiris” in Lithuania would have enough good minutes to win. Unless full concentration is needed before Lietkabelis, ”T. Purlys shared his thoughts.
The basketball specialist has no doubt that currently the only team that can seriously challenge Žalgiris is Lietkabelis. This is demonstrated by the two games between this season, in which the passions were reduced until the last moments.
T. Purlys claims that one of the participants of the final of the KMT tournament is already clear and is “Žalgiris”, and the second should be “Lietkabelis”. Speaking of the possibilities of the Panevėžys team to “bury” a competitor showing excellent form, the interlocutor assured that there really can be everything in a match.
“I think Panevėžys can challenge. Much will depend on how long the teams have to prepare for the final four. If the schedule is favorable enough for Žalgiris, it will be difficult for them to bury him. But knowing that Lietkabelis has already finished performing in Europe and now all the concentration on the home front would give a very good chance that Žalgiris and Lietkabelis will meet in the final.
Anything can happen in a game, we must bear in mind that for Martin Schiller this would be the first final with his team. Lietkabelis can boldly challenge. It can be interesting in the finale, really, “promised T. Purlys intrigue.
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