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Photo: BNS
BNS photo
Kaunas “Žalgiris” left for Catalonia on Wednesday, where he will meet the “Barcelona” led by Šarūnas Jasikevičius on Thursday evening.
Colones are launched this season
Head coach Martin Schiller emphasized defending opponents before the next match.
Barcelona is definitely a great team with very good players and coaches ”, the Schiller conference began. – The main thing is their strong and destructive defense, they have height and aggressiveness. We have a great challenge ahead of us. “
The strategist also confirmed that Lukas Lekavičius, who is recovering from a coronavirus infection, will not yet help the team in Barcelona.
“He’s on the mend, but he won’t be there on Thursday. And he wouldn’t have been able to play due to Euroleague rules, which require a certain number of days after a positive case is registered,” Schiller said.
– You could see a good Barcelona defense in the first game, when you scored 62 points. Could you tell us a little more about what makes the Barça defense so special?
– Has good defensive schemes that are perfectly executed, based on athleticism with good players.
This combination makes for a great defense. I won’t talk much about them Pikenrolo defense and what they do in it, but the above combination of athleticism and defensive talent makes Barcelona’s defense very good.
– In the first match, “Barcelona” made 24 mistakes, “Žalgiris” – 19. What caused it?
– I think both teams were very aggressive then. I would say both teams showed great defense on both occasions.
Kaunas Žalgiris / Schedule
– What is the importance of Cory Higgins and Nick Calathes in the team, knowing their game before Nikola Mirotich and Brandon Davies were not in the lineup?
– You said it yourself. Calathes is one of the most dominant players in the entire league, and Higgins stretched throughout the season, especially in the (Spanish) Copa del Rey.
– What did Leo Westermann contribute to the Barcelona game?
– It is a stable game developer. The coach knew him and wanted to see the team. Westermann is a good basketball player, but it’s hard to speak of a single player when his entire lineup runs so deep.
– What is the progress of Patricio Garino and Steve Vasturia?
– Patricio is still recovering and training, but does not participate in contact training. Steve is healthy and we are happy to have a returning player. All will go to Barcelona, except for Lekavičius, Garinas and the future Marek Blaževičius.
– “Žalgiris” will play in the Euroleague after a 3-week break. In your opinion, what are the consequences of such a break, given the differences in level between the Euroleague and the LKL?
– We are going to Barcelona after the final four of the KMT, where the level of the tournament and the matches was high. We cannot underestimate that. The tournament was good for us, but it really wasn’t easy. The men have a good rhythm and we are going (to Barcelona) to fight.
– Could you clarify the situation of Jokubaitis and his game with the national team? There were any plans for him to play for the national team, but he fell due to a rescheduled match with Crvena Zvezda?
– We had no plans to leave him at the national team camp.
– Žalgiris expects 3 matches in 7 days. How will this change the preparation for future games?
– After KMT, we focused on body rebuilding, especially yesterday. Today we have reserved time for the Barcelona game, and tomorrow we will try. We will have some time to prepare for the match with Crvena Zvezda, but not so much (time) against Real, because the schedule is simply tight, but everything is going well. It has been worse and we will be fine. What is not easy is that Luke is not with us.
– Jankūnas is playing a good season. How long do you think you can play at such a high level?
– It all depends on him. I think he can play a little longer because he takes great care of his body and has experience. I think he is still a strong enough basketball player.
– How important is it to have players like Jankūnas, Milaknis?
– A lot because they have a lot of experience, they have great character and they excel in leadership and they set the tone for the whole team.
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