Valančiūnas, who bowed after the surrender of Kalnietis, did not value personal rage / News

The tandem of Mantas Kalnietis and Jonas Valančiūnas established the advantage of the Lithuanian team, who had finally freed themselves from the clash with two triples, in the Žalgiris arena.

The old comrades twice created attacks that ended in the deployment of the JV, and one of them, after the transfer of Kalnieitis without looking over his back.

Valančiūnas, who shook the Venezuelan basket, exploded with excitement, which passed the fans who began to rage.

“It is not the first year that they play together (with Mantas, – aut. Past),” commented Valančiūnas. – We have a connection and you know how he plays. picenroleYou know how convenient it is for him to build a barrier. “

Valančiūnas, who showed his strength in the Venezuelan team’s penalty area, scored 20 points in 21 minutes, making 8 of 9 double points and 4 of 4 penalties.

The center of the national team also grabbed 11 balls and recorded a performance of 28 utility points.

In the fourth quarter, when Mantas Kalniečius and Rokas Giedraitis ran off a long shot, the Lithuanians broke away with a record 16-point lead (69:53) and did not look back: they opened the national team with a 76:65 victory.

Still, according to JV, things weren’t as easy as they might seem when observing the protocol.

“You can look at the statistics, but basketball is not an individual sport,” Valančiūnas continued. – We all have to play well together and eliminate mistakes. The defense in the first part of the duel was not the biggest problem, but the attack stalled a bit.

We have to play even more together, help each other in the attack and less panic. It was our first match, but it wasn’t perfect. We must take lessons and move on. “

Educational material for Lithuanians: a section before the long break. Darius Maskoliūnas’ students lost at the start of the duel, when they scored just 11 points in the first half, hitting just 4 shots out of 16.

Ours was also wrong 5 times, and 4 mistakes belonged to Marius Grigonis.

“They were ready to fight, their tall people did a great job defending ourselves against us. picenrole, which is our strength. It’s good that we managed to answer correctly, – said Valančiūnas. – They played aggressively on defense, maybe we got a little confused, we made worse decisions when we could play smarter. There was a bit of pressure, an aggressive defense, but then we sorted it out. “

On Wednesday, the Lithuanians will have a day off and on Thursday at the “Žalgiris” stadium they will fight against South Korea. The latter will meet tomorrow with the Venezuelan basketball players.