Attack in Spain: The defeats of “Žalgiris” are connected by the same denominator / News

The month of Spanish visits to Kaunas “Žalgiris” began with a miraculous victory in Valencia, but then three visits to Vitoria, Barcelona and Madrid had to leave a taste in the mouth for generations.

Three defeats, all suffered by double-digit differences and never added more than 68 points.

The stop in Madrid was the last to say goodbye to Spain and he probably had the best chance of winning here. Halfway through the third part of the match with Real, the Kaunas approached 38:39 and it seemed they could break the match.

But then Gabriel Deck shot twice from the distance, Fabien Causeur scored once in a quick attack and in less than a minute and a half Real regained a more solid lead: 47:38.

Another similar section finished off Kaunas in the fourth quarter, when three points from Trey Thompkins and Jaycee Carroll increased Real’s lead to 59:46. In such an unsuccessful match, it was a victorious advantage.

“Even before the game, the challenge was clear: how do we score? – Žalgiris strategist Martin Schiller spoke after the duel. – Real are a particularly good defensive team with great height. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find the way to score points during all the games, so Real deserved the victory. “

As if looking for options to attack, Schiller started the game in Madrid for the first time this season in the starting five without leaving Joffrey Lauvergne in his place and relying on Augustine Rubit. Meanwhile, the injured Artūras Milaknis was replaced by Rokas Jokubaitis.

Rubit came out with the clear task of pulling the 221cm tall Walter Tavares out of the penalty area and shot three times from mid-range in the first half and struck once. However, this plan was soon abandoned and no more mid-range Rubits were attacked.

Tavares in the first half was a big reason why “Žalgiris” scored 13 points and made 5 mistakes. With his great body, he changed Žalgiris ‘plans in attack and destroyed opponents’ attacks even when it was not reflected in the stat protocol.

“He’s a good player and he knows how to use his size,” Thomas Walkup told BasketNews.lt after the match. – There are games in which the game is simply dominated by its defense. That was exactly the first half. “

It is true that Žalgiris later eliminated Tavares from the game. In the second part of the match, he made a mistake 5 times and scored 2 points, and two of the mistakes were fouls in the attack against Walkup himself, who sacrificed his body for contact with a much more powerful opponent.

“I feel great, I like the touch,” Walkup laughed when asked how to hold the body of a cock like that. “Maybe tomorrow I just have a little back pain from the fall, but everything is fine.”

If Walkup was notable on defense, then the rest of Žalgiris’ line of defenders stayed on offense. He, Lukas Lekavičius, Marius Grigonis, Rokas Jokubaitis and Steve Vasturia together did not score any of the 7 pitches. Together, they made 9 effective passes but made a mistake 6 times.

“His size punished us,” Walkup said. – Our location in the square was pretty bad, as was the pace. And that makes a good attack. He’s not the best and we share the ball. “

Žalgiris made 14 mistakes in Madrid and it was a big number, but not as much as in Barcelona and Vitoria, where he lost 20 balls.

In Vitoria, the inhabitants of Kaunas attacked the basket by 48.1 percent. 41% in Barcelona and 40.3% in Madrid.

Do these numbers illustrate the problems of the attack? Walkup did not want to agree with that.

“It doesn’t feel like a hole in the team. It just seems like every little detail is missing, ”said Walkup.

Only Nigel Hayes and Paulius Jankūnas shone brighter in Thursday’s attack. The former hit all three shots with three points and scored 11 points, and the latter played the most productive game with 13 points since January 24, 2019.

The best player on the team also bounced 7 balls and scored 23 utility points, but after the duel he also starred with his fingers in trouble in attack.

“The coach emphasized that leaving Real with 70 points is very good, because their averages are completely different, the defense may have been mediocre today, but the attack did not allow him to fight with them,” said the captain of “Žalgiris”. – It was difficult for Thomas Walkup and Lukas Lekavičius to accept the ball, because the opponents still did not allow him to accept it, pressured them to run out of the ball and someone else would play Marius Grigonis was not allowed to accept the ball, because he is our express leader and all teams know it. Real has done a good job of that. “

“Žalgiris” in Madrid also whistles about unexploded fouls. In the first half, Kaunas committed an infraction only once, and in the second quarter, four. At least some of Real’s quick attacks could have been stopped by fouls, but this component of the game was forgotten.

“Žalgiris” contributed a lot to Real Madrid not taking a single penalty during the entire match. The inhabitants of Kaunas committed only 13 crimes and thus an achievement was recorded, for which Pablo Laso could not find an explanation.

“It’s a curious situation, because for the first time in my life I see that the team did not take a single penalty in the Euroleague game,” said the Real manager. – My players asked me if I had seen something like this in my career.

It makes me think, because I go to the locker room and I have to tell them something about the game, but I have no explanation. “

The defeat in Madrid pushed “Žalgiris” to 10th place in the Euroleague standings and, eight days before the end of the regular season, a relentless scorer will begin.

The remaining five games will be at home, four with the teams at the end of the classification.

To get to the playoffs, four victories in the remaining rounds probably wouldn’t be enough.

Perhaps the good news is that at least Žalgiris will no longer have to visit Spain for the remaining 8 rounds. The Kaunas team can only hope that the attack post is related to visits to this country.