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The hosts, three out of the half, were also in the gap – at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Lietkabelis gained a 10-point lead – 57:47.
Only then, sensing the smell of light, the basketball players “Žalgiris” rushed to reduce the difference. Kaunas managed to shoot 11: 0, and the LKL champions performed better in the last-minute nervous warfare.
For the first time in the LKL season, a new challenge rule was used in the match: it was taken by Martin Schiller, and the judges decided that the foul for D.Gagic is simple.
48 seconds left J.Strelniekas took his most important penalties in this match – 71:69, and L.Lekavičius after G.Orelikas’ error claimed victory for “Žalgiris” – 73:69.
“I’m happy with the victory. The most important thing was the defense, when we started to lag behind, then we increased the intensity, we bounced the balls in attack, which was significant. I don’t know why we couldn’t show a game like that. we showed in the last quarter from the beginning, “said Žalgiris coach M.Schiller.
“It just came to our attention then. If we want to defeat Žalgiris, we have to do everything perfectly. Especially in the last half of the defense, everyone played by their own rules, all I have to do is congratulate Žalgiris with the victory. ”Admitted Nenadas Čanakas, leader of the Lietkabelis, after the match.
– Why did “Žalgiris” play harder only in the last quarter, and not from the first minutes?, – Schiller was asked.
– I can’t answer this question. Our goal is always to fight concentrated and intense from the start of the match.
We need to find out why this is not the case. I think we focused on defense and the biggest problem was our attack.
I can’t answer this question of why things don’t happen from the first few minutes, but we will definitely look for an answer.
– This was the last test against the Euroleague, what is the most worrying thing and what needs to be improved as soon as possible?
– Like I said, the attack is worrisome. After the first two games, we also paid a lot of attention to defense. I want to say that we are going step by step, although the fans highlight the Euroleague, today we play against Lietkabel and we respect them a lot. Now we will see the confrontation with Vilerbano ASVEL.
– Lukas Lekavičius accelerated and threw the team at the end of the match.
– Yes, he played very well, his roughness really helps create an attack. In addition, he only played 20 minutes and had a lot of strength at the end of the game, which allowed him to start us throughout the last quarter.
Without a doubt, his role in the team this year will be very important. So far, he’s dealing with that role, but it should be noted that we only have the start of the season.
– At the end of the match, he asked the referees to review the foul against Jan Strelniek. But you felt very strange, did you not know about such an innovation?
– Do you think the judge offered to ask me for a review? Definitely not. He just told me that he had to raise a certain yellow mark so that the spectators would see it as well, not just the judges.
I was hoping that a non-sports foul could be imposed after the review, although I realized that the chances of getting it were not high.
The referee recommended that I raise the mark, I did not know this detail, I thought it was enough to show the referee a gesture of his request.
