Kairys highlighting the moderate defense of “Žalgiris”: “They made us doubt” / News

Donaldas Kairys, who entered the LKL derby for the first time with Vilnius “Rytas”, was partially satisfied with his students, who in the poor third quarter started the initiative and did not catch up with the Kaunas basketball players “Žalgiris” .

The specialist emphasized that he saw opportunities for the team to stretch, which would allow it to fight even better against a top-tier opponent.

“We had a very interesting match and our start was very good, we started with good energy, we took it from the fans and the atmosphere in the arena,” Kairys said after the match. – We took good advantage of the opportunities: the ball moved in attack, we attacked the penalty area very well, we made good shots and we also defended well. There were good defensive examples. It’s a shame that we lost our initiative in the third quarter and a slightly tougher defense from “Žalgiris” got us out of trouble. “

– What was magical about the defense of “Žalgiris”?
– He started to defend a little stronger, he made us make mistakes and, worst of all, he made us doubt. One of the main tasks in this match was to hesitate and attack. The tougher the defense, the more aggressive the attack. We had to win penalties, we had to take more penalties to such a tough defense, especially in substitutions, which Žalgiris took advantage of. We had to do the same, but we lost the initiative and with each attack “Žalgiris” had more and more strength to finish the match.

– “Žalgiris” took just 3 shots from below the basket before the long break. How did you manage to stop the penalty area?
– It was probably his own decision not to play as much during the midfielders. In the second half of the game, they made adjustments and the ball appeared more frequently in the penalty area. But our goal was to cover the penalty area and not let them attack from there. After two halves, there were very few “Žalgiris” kicks from the penalty area, they generally scored points with three points.

– Your first Lithuanian “El Clásico”. What a thrill?
– It could have been better, but I’m satisfied with some things, we’ve really given up and I think we can do even better.

– How many things were ruined by the first rapes of Rokas Gustis and Arnas Butkevičius?
– Slightly changed our rotations. I would love to have Arna in the square in the spotlight.

– Did Andrew Goudelock get burned or did he defend himself so well against it?
– He didn’t throw many shots. I think “Žalgiris” focused on him, we were able to choose better combinations, let him come out of the barriers and throw him.

– What areas will be revealed during a match of this level?
– We see we can play. We made certain passes at a very good level, both in attack and defense. And there are still things that we must improve, to do more precisely, how to take advantage of the defense schemes chosen by our opponents. Most importantly, there is time and space for improvement. That is what we will do.

– Kada atvyksta Maurice’as Ndouras?
– You are waiting for a European visa. It takes up to two weeks, the documents are attached, waiting for a decision. It is in Senegal.

– As for your mistakes, six were for the long break and another sixteen in the second half. Where do these errors come from?
– First of all, the defense of “Žalgiris”. They pushed, they took out a lot of balls before we crossed the center line. Just when we were preparing for it, we could have done better, but these mistakes cost us a lot. And other mistakes were out of the question: what to play, when to push. He took us out of the game plan, we can really avoid those mistakes and we will have to avoid them if we want to defeat stronger opponents.

– How long until Martin Echod’s return to the lineup?
– Now it’s 3.5 weeks. The prognosis was 4-5 weeks.