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Before his debut in the Champions League, Donaldas Kairys said that the team would try to rehabilitate after a failure in the home front against Kaunas “Žalgiris”, but in the end the basketball players “Rytas” were left with nothing.
Steven Gray, one of the Peristeri Athens leaders, added the most trouble to the hosts, repeating the Champions League’s all-time record of three points and posting the best performance score in tournament history.
The American scored 39 points (3/5 doubles, 10/13 trit., 3/4 penalty) in almost 30 minutes, bounced 3 and took 5 balls, made 7 assists, made a mistake once and scored 47 points efficiency.
The alarm bells began to sound before the first ball of the dispute, when the Athens basketball players, who had played an official match before, walked away with a double-digit lead at the start of the duel, causing Vilnius to make seven errors in the first ten minutes.
Mindaugas Girdžiūnas, who got up from the bench and made four long throws in the same amount of time in the same number of attempts, caught the “morning” behind his ears.
Although Demetrius Jackson scored 10 of his 14 points in the second half, Greece’s guests felt right at home in the half-empty Siemens Arena, easily knocking down the morning barricades and scoring 51 points before the long break. Like the hosts of the site.
Donaldas Kairys was full of excitement on the sideline, but he couldn’t turn the students on to work on defense.
In the first half of the offensive match, both teams flew 9 triples from distance.
Chris McCullough, sitting in the club’s hot seat, did not save the Vilnius capital club, attacking the basket from afar (4/4 trit.) Without scoring, scoring 22 points, bouncing 9 balls and collecting 25 utility points.
Greek national team players who played unstoppable scored at least 24 points all time.
In the defeated match, the Vilnius team attacked perfectly from a distance (14 of 30), but the Peristeri shooters were even more arrogant: up to 18 of 30 (60%) attempts reached the goal.
The Greek team missed only 2 long shots to achieve the best result in the history of the league.
“The game did not go according to the plan prepared by us,” Donald Kairys began at the press conference. – From the beginning of the game we lacked the energy that we showed in the duel with “Žalgiris”. From the first minutes we allowed the rivals to accumulate easy points. Maybe we only defended satisfactorily throughout the match for just four minutes in the second half. We had no control throughout the match because we could not stop the attack of the rivals. We can’t play our game, we can’t go on the offensive if we don’t defend ourselves. It was a bad game for us. First of all, due to a lack of energy, especially on defense, when we gave opponents comfortable throws. We said we couldn’t let S. Gray score points, but he collected them very freely from the first minutes. An incredible match for him. Like I said, we didn’t do anything to stop it. “
– Chris McCullough said there was a lot of help on defense. In your opinion, who is responsible for the 39 points obtained by S.Gray?
– You also need to be able to shoot 10 of 13 3-pointers on poor defense. It was his night. Our defense plan did not work. What we changed in the fourth quarter when we started to change was a little bit better. But that was not enough.
– Ch.McCullough scored points, but the defense looked like a hole. How is this defense navigation explained?
– It is not the biggest hole in the defense. There are more of them. It is very difficult for us all to put on, until now. But we are working on that. Chris has not played at such a level and in such organized basketball. You’ve been instinctively doing a lot so far. He helped with the points, but he made mistakes on defense, he didn’t change anywhere. I think it was better afterwards. Only he tires faster than the others because then he got up, he failed because he was suspended. You cannot always play as many minutes as you would like.
– Have the disciplinary infraction warnings been triggered by changes in your game and attitude?
– No need to talk too much about Chris’s points. He was hit by four 3-pointers, but missed the other shots, hitting two of seven. It costs us, it hurts us. Due to his situation in the team, we are watching him very closely and thinking about what we can take away from him. We think about how you can help us. It is until December 1 for a trial period. We are watching it closely.
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / FIBA Champions League: “Tomorrow” – “Peristeri”
– Mindaugas Girdžiūnas started well, hitting all four 3-pointers in a minute and a half, but after that, only a two-shot hit shot. Did the opponents adapt or did you fail to create opportunities for him?
– Mindė started very well, he would like more of his game. So far, some players still have no stability. Not just Mindaugas, Demetrius Jackson too. He makes good passes, then falls somewhere, loses balls. I don’t think we needed to lose 16. Maybe not a very big number, but it wasn’t Žalgiris’ defense that strangled us from line to line. There were simply poor quality solutions. It costed us. We got points from quick attacks, we got three points and we got very easy points.
– Is it difficult to prepare for a match when the opponents have only played one official match?
– We had enough information, we had enough videos. All was good. We did a non-contact training. Sure, we wanted more time to prepare, but when we have both, we have to prepare with both. It was not tactics but energy that we lacked. Some harshness. When the party started to slip out of our hands, we broke up completely. I didn’t like it anymore. We didn’t show toughness when we didn’t have a chance to win.
– There was aggression in the second half: he threw 13 fines and caused 7 fouls. Why was it not able to maintain this level?
– Like I said, there was a little section in the second half where we felt we could play. At least half. In defense, I never felt that we were in control that we were in control of the situation. Everything got too easy for the opponents.
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / FIBA Champions League: “Tomorrow” – “Peristeri”
– Could it be that the team underestimated the rival?
– I don’t think there could be a reason. We paint the opponent very correctly, very aggressively. The team that beat Panathinaikos, what more is needed? They can play quality basketball. Have good snipers. We emphasized this, but nothing failed. 10 triples of 13 – the numbers are too cruel.
– Which defeat is more painful for you, against “Žalgiris” or this one?
– And how do you look? Today? No ambiguities. Yesterday I was not as disappointed as I was today. With Žalgiris there was also a stage in the last quarter, when everything seemed very difficult. We have to get used to it. Teams like Žalgiris receive such a burden every day, in every Euroleague game. For us, this is a first, at least this season, so far. You need to maintain stability, it is not enough to shine for 8 or 12 minutes. You must learn to maintain the level throughout the game.
Sigismund Gedvila / 15min photo / FIBA Champions League: “Tomorrow” – “Peristeri”
– Demetrius Jackson scored 10 points in the second half in six minutes and 4 points in the rest of the game. Can it play such long stretches or has it not been overclocked?
– Maybe you are right. We never plan to retain a player for that long, the rotations are fast enough: 5 or 6 minutes, maybe a little longer if something goes wrong or we have more problems. But at the time, it turned out that we had to solve it that way. He looked good, he wanted to keep the advantage we seemed to have felt. We had a seven point lead. I think 30 minutes is too much even for a basketball player like a DJ who is physically strong and ready.
– You took an unusually long time after the game in the locker room. What message did you try to send to the students?
– The conversation was very short. I won’t say what I said. They heard me? I will hear you tomorrow.
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