Due to the stalled attack – accusations of negligence in defense / News

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Photo: BNS

Marius Grigonis and practically the entire “Žalgiris” stadium already believed that the first part of the match would close with a triple. Until then, Kaunas “Žalgiris” basketball players had scored nine long shots and Nigel Hayes’ shot had to be the tenth.

Moments ago, Grigonis had stormed over the back line and bounced the ball off to Hayes, who was in the right corner. This one was completely free and Grigonis, who had yielded the pass, had already left the other side of the field, as if without a doubt he was going to throw the net.

Only it did not achieve the goal.

Hayes lost and while Žalgiris had an 8-point lead, that lost 3-pointer seemed to be an introduction to the tragic second half of the match.

In the middle of the third part of the game with Valencia, Žalgiris fell into the deepest hole when he lost 2:17 in the span of 6 minutes and lost not only control of the game, but also the victory.

During this section, “Žalgiris” missed all 8 pitches of the game and made two mistakes. The triples of Grigonis, Hayes, Thomas Walkup, Artūras Milaknis flew sideways, although in the first part of the duel their shots nailed the net.

He was flying like the Valencia pitches did now. Bojana Dubljevičius, who was silent in the first half of the match, started the second half with two triples, Vanja Marinkovičius and Klemen Prepeličius added one, and in total Valencia scored 6 triples in the third quarter alone, when there were only 3 in the first quarter 20 minutes.

“We had to emphasize their pitchers, their play in the penalty area, but we didn’t, because I think we weren’t focused,” Rokas Jokubaitis said after the match. – With the attack “Žalgiris” it is difficult to win. The first three games of the Euroleague looked very good, the fourth with Efes we looked good in attack.

Man of the match

Maybe today, after the first two quarters, we thought we could thwart them with an attack. Perhaps in the second half there was no motivation on the defense. I can’t even explain it. “

Martin Schiller burned his second of the three-minute breaks before the start of the final half, but that didn’t change much.

After three quarters, the dominance of the rivals was in the double digits (57:67), and in the fourth quarter it continued to grow.

Fernando San Emeterio joined the triples game, Marinkovičius made two long throws in a row, and after Derrick Williams’ double everything was clear: 80:64.

“We did not defend their strengths, nor did we do it one by one individually,” Thomas Walkup told Žalgiris TV. – We let them do what they want. We did not stop their rhythm in the attack, in the second part of the duel they did what they wanted, everything was easy for them ”.

“We played more than half the time without fouls,” Artūras Milaknis said of the situation in the third quarter. – It is difficult to explain. We are beginning to emphasize this a bit, we will work and try not to repeat it again. When you do not make contact, let the opponents sit (good), especially the Spanish team. The bag seemed very large. “

At the time, the bag still seemed small to Žalgiris. They started the second half of the game with ten clumsy triples in a row. Add that Hayes’ pitch at the end of the second half would be 11 consecutive three-point serves.

We were completely free, but what cost us the most in the first half was lost. Maybe we threw it, Jokubaitis thought.

“Žalgiris” started the game with four consecutive triples, and only in the first quarter he made 7 long shots of 9.

So many triples “Žalgiris” didn’t get too right visas against Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade and Olympiakos in Piraeus (both scored 3 points each).

“Although we got stuck in the third half, we had to respond at the same time, but we did not respond,” Grigonis said. – Valencia is a good team that has played us and has been stronger. Needs improvement.

If we win the first four games, it doesn’t mean we’ll sweep them all. We have our weaknesses that we have to improve, work with. We do it every day and I think we will have a better result in the next game. “

The next match is already on Sunday in Vilnius with “Rytas”, the only LKL team that has not lost so far. Jokubaitis hoped that the defeat of the Valencian team would be a wake-up call.

“Maybe it’s a good loss before the derby,” said the young Žalgiris player. “Today we didn’t really look like the leaders of the Euroleague, that’s sad, but sometimes those defeats lead to a positive one.”