Evaluations for the people of Žalgiris: missing the energy of Jokubaitis, Jankūnas, who drank the elixir of youth, and the triples of Lekavičius / News

Kaunas “Žalgiris” started the double week of the Euroleague with a very important victory at home against Vilerbana ASVEL – 85:75.

The Kaunas team shut down the hottest team in the Euroleague, tied with wins in the least played match and eighth place at Fenerbahče in Istanbul, and the fight for the playoffs continues.

Marius Grigonis, who scored 21 points (5/7 trit.), Was the most productive among the Lithuanian champions. The defender scored 13 utility points in 26 minutes.

Jonas Lekšas, a journalist for the website BasketNews.lt, praised the individual performances of the Kaunas team players against the French club.

Joffrey Lauvergne’as – 9 broom
21 min., 18 min. (6/11 dvit., 1/2 trit., 3/3 baud.), 6 atk. kam., 2 by. kam., 19 naud. balų.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Hands down Lauvergne’s best performance this season, looking both sides of the pitch, against teams that feature traditional midfielders. The match started hard for the French, and if Moustapha Fallu managed to manage on defense, then the attack failed to create good chances. The picture was cardinally successful after the break: Joffrey scored 16 points in two halves and Fallas continued to be solidly supervised. The Frenchman also scored the second triple of his season against his home country.

Thomasas Walkupas – 9 rooms
32 min., 12 p. (3/5 dvit., 1/2 trit., 3/3 baud), 3 atm. cam., 4 res. refer., 1 bl., 14 us. points.

Photo KKF-Scanpix

Walkup’s most important task was overseeing Norris Cole and while the NBA champion scored 14 points, Žalgiris perfectly cut the latter, causing another basketball player to play ASVEL’s attacks and make them of lower quality. On the attack, Thomas responded to opponents with physicality, felt the rhythm of the game and made a mistake only once in 32 minutes. Yes, in the first part of the game, the defender rushed in with a long shot, but scored a point late in the game, throwing two points from a foul.

Rokas Jokubaitis – 8.5 points
23 min., 10 p. (3/8 dvit., 0/1 trit., 4/4 baud.), 5 res. lost, 2 for. cam., 1 bl., 14 benefits. points.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Rokas started the match from defense against David Lighty and although the latter missed a couple of times in team defense, the Žalgiris man handled his tasks well, pushing the opponent from the baseline and this gave him tangible benefits. Not all pitches fell on attack, but Jokubaitis radiated energy, his transfers to Lauvergne on goal set the entire team on fire and he was a key man in the third quarter when Žalgiris took the lead. It seemed that the curve of the game of 20 years had been declining recently, so it is very important that we managed to recover exactly when the team lost another person in the perimeter rotation (Artūras Milaknis).

Marius Grigonis – 8 rooms
26 min., 21 p. (3/5 dvit., 5/7 trit.), 2 by. cam., 3 units, 4 losses, 13 uses. points.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Marius started the duel with an intact three-point arc, but then scored five, punishing changeable opponents on defense. Some of Grigonis’ three-point rebounds might even recall Stepho Curry’s episodes beyond the Atlantic, but it must be admitted that Žalgiris had to fight and show dominance due to their points – the defender did not make any effective passes in 26 minutes. and caused a single foul. In defense, the basketball player was stopped for the personal fouls collected.

Paulius Jankūnas – 7.5 points
21 min., 5 p. (2/4 dvit., 1/2 baud), 9 atm. cam, 4 sec. pr., 10 benefits points.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Paul seems to have drunk the elixir of his youth and was not only smarter but also faster in his duel with ASVEL, which allowed him to recover the most balls this season (9), five of which were in attack. The captain, who gave Žalgiris a second chance, played very intelligently and was a solid counterbalance to the physicality of the opponents. Yes, there was a worse section in the second half, when he followed the block received, the steps and the foul, but, looking at it as a whole, Jankūnas did an incredible job.

Lukas Lekavičius – 7 rooms
14 min., 6 p. (3/3 dvit.), 2 rez. refer., 1 bl., 6 us. points.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Lekavičius got off to a bad start, struggled with his personal defense, and his deployed man cost Žalgiris three points for his bag, leaving the defender on the bench longer in the first half of the game. However, at the end of the third quarter and at the beginning of the fourth, three consecutive successful attacks by Luke laid the groundwork for the hosts’ victory. Interestingly, long shots have disappeared from the player’s game recently: Lekavičius scored last in the Euroleague on January 15 in St. Petersburg, and has since taken just 3 3-pointers in six games.

Agustín as Rubitas – 5.5 balo
19 min., 7 min. (2/8 dvit., 3/4 baud.), 4 atk. kam., 4 naud. balai.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Rubit had his own section, but he missed comfortable shots several times in the game, which greatly worsened his shooting percentage. A couple of shots that weren’t the smartest from mid-range also contributed to the bad shot, but Augustine did a good job defending against Fall as well.

Nigelas Hayesas – 4 balai
31 min., 4 tk. (1/2 dvit., 0/2 trit., 2/2 baud.), 3 atk. kam., 4 kld., 1 naud. bullets.

Photo BasketNews.lt/D.Lukšta

Hayes started the game with a long distance shot and two penalty kicks, and this suggested there might be another good American night. However, Nigel later disappeared in attack and had trouble with Guerschon Yabusel on defense. The Žalgiris player made the most mistakes this season (4), and Hayes’ three-point series was interrupted against ASVEL – the forward shot at least one long shot in the Euroleague for 18 straight games.

Martin Geben provoked two fouls in 6 minutes and hit two of four penalties. The Lithuanian didn’t do much damage on the video field, he was very active during the short stretch and showed that he is worth more playing time.

Karolis Lukošiūnas got real minutes for the second time in the Euroleague and, although he did not find a good shot in 5 minutes, he did not make any serious errors on defense, which is mainly required by a young basketball player.