[ad_1]
On Thursday, the Lithuanian champions played the last game of the Euroleague of this season. In a two-time duel in Munich, Kaunas had to acknowledge the advantage of Bayern Munich basketball players in 70:71.
The persistent fighting that unfolded throughout the match reached the highest point of tension at the end of the match, when Kaunas leader “Žalgiris” Nigel Hayes snatched the ball from Wade Baldwin’s hands in 70:69.
The confrontations of the confrontation decided to give the ball to the students of M. Schiller, but after the review they changed their decision and returned it to the owners of the field. Vladimir Lučičius took the opportunity to reconsider the result and Bayern, which defended themselves from the last attack in Žalgiris, celebrated the victory.
“It was a very controversial episode. In my personal opinion, if there was no review, the ball should have hit the Bayern basketball players, but looking at the review, you could see that the ball was the last to touch W. Waldwin.
Whatever decision the judges made, the match was not over yet. In a disputed episode, we always want the ball to go our way, but we cannot say that the referee made a mistake.
There was a review, it was done by three referees and I don’t think they could have made an unfavorable decision for “Žalgiris”, thought T. Purlys about the end of the match.
After this duel, it was clear that the Kaunas team would not rise above 11th place this Euroleague season. Schiller’s students will end the regular season of the tournament with a home game against basketball players from Panathinaikos Athens.
No more tensions
Although the guests fell for the traps of Bayern’s slimy defense on Thursday, many more signs of lightness could be seen in “Žalgiris” play.
On Tuesday, the guests who lost all chances to enter the Euroleague playoffs arrived in Munich to fight just for the honor.
Basketball coach and specialist T. Purlys says Žalgiris facilitated the match in Germany from the second half of the first game of the week with ALBA.
“Everything was great on two different sides of Tuesday’s game with ALBA. During the first two halves, it was clear that Žalgiris was still thinking about the possibility of getting into the playoffs and was playing very tense. There was a lack of freedom both in defense. as in attack, which always adds positive things to the Kaunas Club.
There was something else after the break. The second part of the duel with ALBA recalled the match against Bayern, he felt relaxed, it could be seen that “Žalgiris” is no longer under tension.
It was reminiscent of the victorious game that delighted many at the beginning of the season. This attack was one of the most beautiful in the entire Euroleague, “said the portal. lrytas.lt T. Purlys commented on the game of Kaunas residents.
Thomas Walkupas was the most productive player on the Žalgiris team.
The 193 cm tall American scored 16 points (3/4 doubles, 2/2 trits, 4/4 penalties, shots), 29 rebounds and 26 utility points in 29 minutes on the floor against Bayern.
The basketball specialist also drew attention to the successful play of other Kaunas club defenders.
The game of “Žalgiris” depends a lot on the defenders. We can see that L. Lekavičius has already recovered from the coronavirus and is reusing its advantages to perfection, he feels freshness and as a result the game of “Žalgiris” is improving.
It was also revealed Karolis Lukošiūnas, who perfectly replaced Artūras Milaknis, who fell due to injury. The fun thing is, Carol gets more and more minutes at the end of the season and uses them productively.
Glad some basketball players came out of the pits. I am especially happy with L. Lekavičius, because it already seemed that he had experienced a considerable game crisis, but he managed to get back to normal, ”reasoned T. Purlys.
The lost leader
“I can only comment on my game, which has been in the pits for a long time. Today the bottom was reached: mistakes, missed shots, fatigue. It’s scary, “said Marius Grigonis of Žalgiris after one of the most important and defeated matches against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The 26-year-old, 198 cm tall defender, who has become the undisputed leader of “Žalgiris” this season, does not leave the pits. On Thursday, Grigonis was in his shadow again in the game against Bayern Munich.
The Lithuanian, who saved the Lithuanian champions more than once, pitched 10 and made just 2 pitches on Thursday.
Zalgiris scored 5 points (1/5 double, 1/5 trit) in 30 minutes, bounced 5 balls and scored 3 utility finishes.
3 utility points: repeated the worst performance of M. Grigonis this season. He scored an equal number of utility points in the match against ALBA in Berlin on Tuesday.
According to T. Purlis, Žalgiris was exhausted from the season that required a lot of effort, and this would have been avoided if M. Schiller had distributed the players’ rotation differently.
“It is difficult to get into Marius. It is normal for a player to fall into a pit, but I think those pits occur due to unreasonably organized player minutes. Now there has come a period of the season where many Žalgiris players have reached the lowest point of his physical condition.
When Paulius Jankūnas plays more than twenty games in the LKL championship, when M. Grigonis is not saved, it is clear that the players can no longer physically endure the long season. It was a mistake, ”said the basketball specialist.
Worth a good note
When it became clear in the summer that Šarūnas Jasikevičius, the victorious blacksmith of “Žalgiris”, was leaving Kaunas, many basketball specialists began to look at the household names of Lithuanian and European basketball coaches.
However, the Kaunas club management made an unexpected decision: M. Schiller, a basketball specialist from Austria working in the United States, was appointed as the new coach of “Žalgiris”.
“By choosing M. Schiller, the directors of” Žalgiris “took a risk. At first, Kaunas’ game looked very wavy, but overall we can evaluate M. Schiller’s first season in Europe positively.
At first glance you can see that the technician applied the European system, new nuances were integrated during the season and innovations emerged.
The basketball specialist grew up with the team and there is nothing he wants to be the same as Ettore Messina or Dimitrius Itoudis in season one, ”said T. Purlys.
The basketball specialist added that recently basketball fans have dressed up as miracles created by Š.Jasikevičius, but now we have to get back to reality, which is not bad either.
“We often expect miracles, but sometimes we don’t know what to do. The budget for” Žalgiris “is not special, and the composition barely reaches the” Top 8 “level. We were used to the miracles that a team with a smaller budget skips, but miracles only happen occasionally. They cannot always be expected, “emphasized T. Purlys.
In his opinion, the performance of the Lithuanian champions in the international arena can be valued as a good grade.
We can really positively evaluate the game and the place of “Žalgiris” in the tournament table. You have to understand that at the end of the season we had to play without the traumatized A. Milaknis, Patricio Garino had been out of the lineup for a long time and Stevas Vasturia was not what we expected.
If we evaluate the entire regular season, we can write a really high rating for Kaunas Club, and especially for M. Schiller, ”said the basketball specialist.
