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Led by Catalan engineer Xavi Pascual, Zenit de Saint Petersburg on Thursday night easily shelled a green-white walnut.
Martin Schiller stayed true to his philosophy, which seems to have already been understood by rival great masters.
The Russian club already had an 8-point lead after the first half, climbing to 15 in the second quarter and a record 25 in the third quarter.
In the five-loss black section, all opponents threw a two-digit three-point number.
Real Madrid scored 10, Tel Aviv’s Maccabi 11, Moscow’s CSKA 12 and Milan’s Olimpia 13 also bombarded Zenit, a very solid 12 points out of 22 (54.5%).
11.6 missed three points over the black section with an average of 47.2 percent. hit. It is difficult to win with those numbers.
“The match was not as successful as the last three, where the same mistakes were repeated,” team captain Paulius Jankūnas said after the duel. – Today was -20 at the same time, before we had -30. Only then did we start playing. This is the biggest problem we hobble with on defense. Today we were somewhat represented one by one, but in the defense of the team, when we needed to help each other, in first or second aid, it was not at all. In my opinion, this thing is missing. The fact that we found out in the end means little. We started the third quarter losing three triples. The plan was to change everything on defense, they couldn’t throw such pitches, but as is often the case this season, it happened. “
36-year-old P.Jankūnas, who started Game 3 in the first five in a row, was solid: he scored 6 points in 13 minutes, bounced 5 balls and scored 7 utility points, but that was not enough for the victory.
Winning was a long way off and the result on the scoreboard can confuse those who have not seen the game.
VIDEO: Paulius Jankūnas: “When such a result has to improve defense, an attack alone will not reach it”
In the first four winning matches, Green and White missed 69.8 points each, in the last five failures, even 88.6.
“Žalgiris” is sinking to the bottom according to defense index: 119.1 points lost in 100 attacks. If we look at the stretch of the last five games, the defense index falls to 130 points difficult to understand in 100 attacks.
For comparison, last season, when the team was led by Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Žalgiris’s defense index was 112. Last year – 112.3, and in the 2017-2018 season – 112.6.
“I don’t know, we have players from last season, we also have players who have joined recently. This is the Euroleague, everyone is a professional and highly skilled player. It may not always be possible to emphasize and anticipate everything, but it should have team communication. I don’t know, maybe someone lacks focus and responsibility? Someone is missing something. Team defense is not one on one, where you are only responsible for yourself. It is the job of the five , everyone has to help each other. With so many lost matches, I don’t know, it should be completely different. An attack can win one match or another, but defense will help you win many more matches. The more we lose, the stronger it must be the defense. So far we are not doing it for some reason “, considered the captain of” Žalgiris “.
VIDEO: Joffrey Lauvergne: “Frankly, we were well prepared”
The fate of the match was decided immediately after the long break. Ironically, the Žalgiris people were only in the game for five minutes, as if everything was clear when the Zenit players returned to the floor after 10 minutes.
3-pointers by forwards Kevin Pangos, Austin Hollins, Will Thomas and Mateusz Ponitka of the St. Petersburg team lifted the Russian club’s lead to a record 25 points early in the third quarter.
The spoons were in the afternoon, although “Žalgiris” showed struggle and tried to grab onto the opponents throat.
“We played well for 33 minutes, but if we want to win the match, we have to play well for 40 minutes,” said Joffrey Lauvergne of Žalgiris. – But we are not yet a team of this level. We need to improve the game on that. We had trouble defending, although we were well prepared. At least that’s my opinion. We did our best to be prepared for these situations. The opponents ran in a circle, used barriers and threw 3-pointers without hindrance. We found no medication. I don’t know where the problem is, but it exists and we have to fix it. “
The Frenchman played the most productive and useful game in the ranks of “Žalgiris”: 17 points, 8 rebounds, 19 utility points in almost 23 minutes.
VIDEO: “Hot feet”: the fifth defeat of “Žalgiris” in a confrontation with Zenit
The hole on his side of the field is in the position of a light forward, in which he still cannot play, and it is unclear how much he will not be able to, Patricio Garino of Argentina should have become Edgar Ulanov’s successor.
The forward, who moved from Vitoria “Baskonia” to “Žalgiris”, is famous for his defensive qualities, but due to serious injuries he will not be able to play until at least January.
“It could be better, but as I like to say, it could be worse. We miss him, that’s a fact. But we had shown that we were at a sufficient level to beat, say, Anadolu Efes. But we can also lose to Lietkabel. We have to play the 40 minutes well. We cannot afford to give away a few minutes because rivals can irreversibly escape during that time. Then it becomes too difficult to go back, “explained J. Leuvergne.
Steve Vasturia, Artūras Milaknis, sometimes Marius Grigonis or Nigel Hayes, who have been looking for the position lately, share time in this position.
VIDEO: Sometimes you just have to shout: a minute break from angry M. Schiller
Žalgiris’ field appeared to be overwhelmed by slight panic during the duel with Zenit. Outraged Martin Schiller broke the music in the arena during a three-point break in a four-minute break, and at the end of this quarter, P.Jankūnas spared no advice to the coaching staff of the coaches.
“It wasn’t a comment,” the captain recalled. – After the first, second and third episode of it, I wanted to activate the defense. The result worsened with each attack, it was necessary to start defending more aggressively. I think we started to do that little by little, we defended ourselves better somewhere, we helped someone somewhere. When such a result, you must activate the defense, not reach the opponents through the attack “.
Šarūnas Jasikevičius, under whose leadership Barcelona lead the Euroleague (8-1), will not smell victory in the near future.
The Catalan team, which has picked up the superstar, leads the tournament in defense (96.4 points per 100 attacks) and seventh in attack (113.4 per 100 attacks).
“If we knew the problem, we would solve it immediately. Maybe lack of responsibilities, maybe someone is afraid to punish, maybe someone is afraid that their player will get points if they go to the rescue. It’s the kind of thing we have to work like clockwork on. We can certainly have a more aggressive defense. I don’t think anyone understands anything. “What is asked is simply not done,” said P. Janūnas.
Žalgiris’ attack index is second in the Euroleague (117.2 average), but the defense is below the critical level.
I don’t want to say it’s the true face of the green-whites, as the rivals on the road also came from the top eight. But the fact is, early in the season, M. Schiller’s troops were successful: some opponents limped after injuries and lineup adjustments made during the offseason, while others solved the issues raised by COVID-19.
Now there are many problems in “Žalgiris” as well, only they are related to the game on his side of the court. There were no victories on the Green-White field in November. It is time to take up again if we want December to be different.
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