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The Kaunas team “Žalgiris” will play the match of the 26th round in Madrid in the Euroleague on Thursday, where they will face the team of “Real”.
In the regular season, both teams already see the straight and the gratifying fact is that the people of Žalgiris only have a disadvantage of 1 victory against the troops of Pablo Lasas. If they managed to win at least 4 points, the people of Žalgiris would gain a mutual advantage over Real in the tournament table.
A few years ago, that would seem like a utopia and a difficult scenario, but this season, Real are far from the team that scares the rivals. By contrast, Madrid’s have been playing boringly lately and now seem like a scathing opponent for Grunwald.
Last season, after 26 rounds, Real had 20 wins on their account, recording the same result in 2018-2019. season. It is clear that this year it will be at least a quarter behind this calendar.
Before this season, Real could be considered a top five team as they retained the core, but things started to unravel when Facundo Campazzo left for the Denver Nuggets and no player was bought in his place. Anthony Randolph, the leading heavy edge, also suffered an Achilles tendon injury and fell for a long time.
Real tried to make up for the loss of two five starting players by pulling forgotten weapons in the back of the bench like Fabien Causuer or Jeffery Taylor, and the reinforcement called is Alex Tyus. The 204cm tall 33-year-old center of Galatasaray Istanbul is clearly no longer a player of the highest caliber in the Euroleague. The veteran scores 2.8 points in 11 minutes, rebounds 2.5 points and scores 3.4 utility points. Even on defense, he is no longer a reliable player, and a lot shows in A. Tyus’s “over / under” indicator, which is -45 points in just 8 games, when Usman Garuba, who was “overtaking” him, scored. -50 in 25 games. This means that A. Tyius spends on average 5.6 points more than his earnings on the parquet in a single match with Real.
Thomas Heurtel wanted to close the gap for Campazzo, but Barcelona and Real did not allow the deal to play Nicolás Laprovittola, the young Carlos Alocen and Sergio Lllull in this position. The Argentine seemed to have taken over the entire management of the game, but he seems bored and only 28.4 percent contribute to his poor performance. a three-point shot (21/74), and from far he attacks much more frequently than from close range. The ratio of 4 assists and 1.5 errors does not grace his game either.
S.Lull, who has already missed 5 Euroleague matches and is not sure if he will play against Žalgiris, has been injured in a duel with Valencia. Rudy Fernández, who missed 5 Euroleague games, also has health problems. The 35-year-old veteran suffers from back problems and did not even show up on the pitch for Valencia last week.
Gabriel Deck, who dreams of the NBA, also looks pale. The Argentine only seems to have gained momentum recently, averaging 16 utility points over the 6-game stretch, but returning to the court in Valencia by 5 points. G.Deckas registers averages of 6.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 7.9 points of utility in 21 minutes. He’s only managed to score double-digit points 5 times, but he does a lot of work on defense.
In general, Real is a unique team in the Euroleague in which no player registers an average of at least 12 points: Walter Tavares is the one who plays the longest (26 minutes each) and wins 11.5 points. Next comes Trey Thompkins with an average of 10 points and no more than double digits.
W. Tavares is now the main axis around which the Royal game revolves. With a giant 220 cm tall on the floor, this season Real has scored 185 points more than its competitors. Second is Jaycee Carroll, who has a plus of 73 points. This is a huge gap between players that is not found on any other Euroleague team.
In the first round, W. Tavares played an impressive match, scoring 22 points in the Žalgiris basket, grabbing 12 balls and registering an efficiency of 34 points. The second main blacksmith was F. Campazzo: 19 points, 10 assists and 28 utility points. Fortunately, he is now showing his talents on the other side of the Atlantic.
It is obvious that the number one plan of “Žalgiris” is to stop W. Tavares. A few weeks ago, Vitoria Baskonia left the player with just 6 points and 10 points and achieved an easy victory in Madrid by 84:64. Valencia, for their part, limited Tavares to 11 points and 19 points last week and won the match 89:78.
The second important aspect is to start the game well. P.Laso has a strange orderly rotation and they stick to the first part of the duel when dividing the minutes and do not ignore neither the result on the scoreboard nor the actions of the opponents. Valencia scored 29 points in the first quarter to take an 8-point lead, while Baskonia broke even more by 28:15. Curiously, in the match with Vitorija P. Laso’s team started with A. Tyusu and played the first half, although obviously the team had problems. It is true that Real recovered in the second quarter (19: 9) and returned to the game, but Baskonia resolved everything in the last quarter (24:12).
Lasas has been criticized in the last two Euroleague matches, which Real have irretrievably lost to their country’s clubs. They emphasize the rigidity in the tactics, the bad decisions when changing players and the excess of confidence in F. Causeur and T. Thompkins.
The 37-year-old veteran J.Carroll, who appeared in the top five last week and scored 20 points, is also coming to the rescue of Real’s troubled boat. It is third in terms of performance (9.8 points), and from a distance it reaches 43.5 percent. precision. The people of Žalgiris will have to watch out for the strong barriers of W. Tavares, after which J.Carroll often creates a lot of space for his shots from the perimeter.
Universal and dangerous is Alberto Abalde, for whom Real put 1.5 million in summer. exchange of euros. The striker displays elite defense and can compete in three positions, from player to light edge. Abalde has significantly improved his shooting from a distance: last season he sold only 28% of Valencia. long distance shots (15/53), and has now reached 41.9 percent. (31/74) three points.
Thompkins, who has apologized himself, looks slow lately. Naturally, in the “fourth number” position, “Royal” must trust this player when A.Randolph is gone. In the last 4 games, Thompkins scores only 4 points and accumulates 8 utility points.
On Thursday, there will be reserves of power on the Royal side: the Madriders have not competed since last Friday, while Žalgiris competed with Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade on Tuesday and the leaders had to sweat for long minutes: Marius Grigonis played 36, Thomas Walkup – 30, Nigel Hayes – 28 Artūras Milaknis, who has played 200 straight Euroleague matches, will have to play Rokas Jokubaitis again for 30 minutes, and Karolis Lukošiūnas or Steve Vasturia should get off the bench.
He’s really feeling the pressure and the recent losses are pushing the team up against the wall as the line between going in and not reaching the quarterfinals is very thin. Lasas troops will play against Žalgiris, then they will probably take a point at home against Chimki in the Moscow region and face serious rivals for the remaining 7 matches: Zenit in Saint Petersburg, ASVEL in Vilerban, Fenerbahche in Istanbul and at home . Barcelona, Moscow CSKA, Istanbul Anadolu Efes, Piraeus Olympiacos.
Not making the playoffs would be a real shock for the Real team, but it shouldn’t be too surprising. However, the club is clearly going through a transitional period and should make a significant change to its roster this summer. The Spanish announce the departure of Jeffery Taylor, N. Laprovittola, T. Thompkins, A. Tyus and Felipe Reyes will end their career. Questionnaires about R. Fernandez and S. Lull, who may also decide to hang sports shoes on the nail. Fernandez is more likely to do that. It has been repeatedly announced that the Real already has an agreement with Th. Heurtel, who will sign a contract according to the formula “1 plus 1”.
The “Žalgiris” will face this Thursday a dangerous rival, who is the favorite of the duel, but it is far from being the Real team that was extremely difficult to beat on the trip and scared the rivals with its hurricane attack and stars.
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