[ad_1]
After the game, French basketball critics lamented the distant hope, but were glad that one of the best players on the Kaunas team was compatriot Joffrey Lauvergne.
According to LyonMag, a Lyon news site, Vilerban basketball players went to Kaunas “watching the playoffs.” However, Kaunas “Žalgiris”, whose arguments were more important on Tuesday, is also trying to clinch a ticket to the quarterfinals with both hands. Kaunas won the changing match of round 27 by 85:75 and forced the French to reduce their appetite.
“Vilerban’s team bowed to Kaunas, the few hopes of getting into the playoffs have receded,” admitted Le Figaro, one of the most important French publications, in the headline after the game in Kaunas.
“ASVEL has withdrawn from the race for a place in the playoffs,” the sport.fr website said.
Although Vilerban’s guests took the lead after two halves, some French commentators called the Kaunas team’s victory convincing. “The square was organized by Žalgiris, and the TJParker team did not stop the rivals’ aggression in the second half,” confirmed the BeBasket website.
“Playing with ASVEL, a direct competitor fighting for a place in the playoffs, the Kaunas team convincingly achieved the seventh consecutive victory in their field,” France’s largest sports daily L’Equipe did not doubt the advantage of the Kaunas team. .
“The Ronies got off to a good start, but the hosts gradually raised their heads. In the first place, they forced the guests to make mistakes, this was done especially well by the young Rokas Jokubaitis, and then they began to collect the harvest of the balls recaptured under the opponents’ basket ”, BeBasket pointed out the reason for the victory of Kaunas team.
This website highlighted the talents of Marius Grigonis and the work of Joffrey Lauvergne, but especially emphasized the “dark work” of Paulius Jankūnas.
The French could have admired that one of the best players in “Žalgiris” was his compatriot. “It is symbolic that at the end of the last attack of the match, the ball was received by Joffrey Lauvergne, the Frenchman of” Žalgiris “, who gave one of the bloodiest performances of the season,” wrote L’Equipe.
Although Lauvergne played poorly in the first half of Tuesday’s game, he and “young leader” Rokas Jokubaitis, who, according to L’Equipe, “is expected in the 2021 NBA Rookie Trade,” killed Vilerban’s team in the third half.
“ASVEL has also not found a way to stop Marius Grigonis,” said L’Equipe, another Žalgiris leader.
On Tuesday, French sports media leaders missed Kaunas’s noisy supporters. “The large, empty and quiet arena of Žalgiris was not like the usual cauldron of passions, which amazes all the invited teams. However, this did not prevent the Žalgiris basketball players, supported by several hundred cardboard spectators in the front rows and shouted by the fans through the loudspeaker, they will continue on the path of victories, ”wrote L’Equipe.
