Frustration in “Žalgiris” – starving yourself with your fingers to concentrate and not fulfilling the plan / News

Although he played for the hottest team in the Euroleague, after the painful defeat in Istanbul, Kaunas “Žalgiris” basketball players hung their fingers for the first time. Lack of honesty and concentration was what Thomas Walkup and Marius Grigonis lacked most.

“Žalgiris” was one shot away from the biggest loss of the season (a huge one-point difference missed in Tel Aviv), and the miss was further compounded by the injury suffered by Joffrey Lauvergne in the second half.

Returning to defense, the rival climbed onto the French leg and Žalgiris fell backwards. After falling, he grabbed him from behind and soon asked to be replaced.

After returning to the pitch a few minutes later, Lauvergne did not stay there and showed coach Martin Schiller that he could no longer continue the duel.

However, after the match, Lauvergne was upbeat, telling the BasketNews.lt website that he didn’t think the beatings could take him out of line.

With or without Lauvergne, Žalgiris had no chance from the first minute at the Sinan Erdem Arena on Friday.

Anadolu Efes scored 17 unanswered points at the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second, and in the 13th minute a white towel could be thrown – 36:12.

It was the same Anadolu Efes who has been terrorizing every rivals in the Euroleague for the past few months.

Of the last 11 matches, Anadolu Efes won 10, and the last five victories were achieved with an average advantage of 25.6 points.

The Istanbul team ranks fourth in the tournament table, but faces the decisive stage of the season as probably the best team in the league.

“Perfect defense, perfect teamwork, so a good win,” said Ergin Ataman, the “Anadolu Efes” coach, after the duel. – We achieved the victory and obtained the advantage of mutual matches.

Our defense was very aggressive, and in attack we shared the ball well, everyone touched it. We will continue on this path because we want to move up the rankings.

The representatives of “Žalgiris” could only speak cardinally opposite things.

“It’s quite a disappointing show for all of us,” Walkup said. – We are hunting for the Euroleague playoffs, but we did nothing in such an important game.

I know that all the matches from the first to the 34th round are equally important, but it is clear that now all the matches are essential. So it was disappointing to come here and play like this. “The concentration was disappointing.”

“Everything failed,” summarized Grigonis. – They attack us two by two, they always find something and we don’t have a ball. They played more freely. We do not attack, we do not stop in defense, we do not stop, we have not fulfilled the plan. They are on the wave, hitting everything. It was really possible to fight better. “

After just a third of the long halftime pitches, Kaunas was 28:49 behind and the second part of the match was a formality.

“The concentration, the execution of the defense plan was bad today,” said Walkup. – We knew what we wanted to take away from them, but they did everything they wanted.

They were physical. But once you can get back to defense, defense is much easier. We didn’t get anything easy tonight, we didn’t score points in the fast attack. 60 points with a static attack alone is not bad, but we just didn’t get anything easy. “

This was a typical poor match story: unable to defend themselves, the Žalgiris were unable to run for a quick attack. Unable to attack and make a mistake while passing the ball, they allowed opponents to fly and score easy points.

And when Efes still hit 15 3s of 34 (44 percent accurate), the evening dragged on.

“We lost a lot of free throws, maybe we could hit a record,” Ataman still splashed salt on the wound after the duel. “We made 15 3-pointers, but we missed a lot of free throws.”

This is the current Anadolu Efes. Too good to attack even when not everything hits, and too solid on defense, especially when opponents are missing something.

“A lot of people doubted us at the beginning of the season, but I think we’re showing who we are every night,” Shane Larkin said after the match. – We have many guys who can create an attack, making it difficult for us to stop. Many players get off the bench, even tall ones can build.

We are a very special team in attack and defense, we play at a high level and we have to continue to do so. We hope to make the playoffs and keep the game. “

The situation in Žalgiris is the opposite. Having lost for the fifth time in the last 7 matches, Kaunas lags behind in eighth position by a win, but now continues to battle against teams from Vitoria and Valencia, who have surpassed Kaunas in terms of number of wins and have a mutual advantage of duel.

With five games to go to the end of the regular season, Žalgiris desperately needs wins and will be able to hold out when he returns to Istanbul next week, where he will face a direct competitor for the playoffs: Fenerbahche.