Schiller wakes up students during recess: “I’m glad the team reacted” / News

Kaunas “Žalgiris” basketball players, who lost 51 points in the first half of the game, listened to their coach during the long break. Martin Schiller emphasized the students’ lack of defensive efforts in the locker room and they responded with actions on the field.

In the third quarter, ALBA Berlin made just 4 shots out of 13, made a mistake 6 times and fouled 7 times, all of which resulted in just over 10 points. Schiller highlighted another number after the duel.

“For me, the story of the match was that we made 14 saves in the first half of the defense and 16 only in the third half. It was the story of the match for me. Also, we stopped Eriksson, who scored just 2 points in the second. half, “said the” Žalgiris “coach.

Marcus Eriksson scored a third of all team points before the long break, 17, and his team led 51:41.

However, in the third quarter, “Žalgiris” ran 28:10 and took the lead.

“We started hard, we beat the interesting defense of the rivals and we defended very badly. In the second half, we improved our defense and everything improved, – Lukas Lekavičius, who scored 21 points, spoke after the duel. – During the long break, the technician raised his voice a bit, it was probably necessary. We did not change tactics, we did everything the same, we just needed a kick to ass. A bit of aggression, energy and everything went well ”.

“I was obviously not happy with the 51 points lost. It’s unacceptable and I wasn’t happy, ”Schiller said. – I told that to the boys and they reacted. I’m very happy about that, they showed their reaction on defense ”.

“Žalgiris” won the second half of the match 55:35, and at the same time led by 21 points.

Man of the match

Among Kaunas residents, Lekavičius, who celebrated his 27th birthday, was the most productive, hitting all 5 triples.

“Congratulations to Luke on the game and his birthday,” said Schiller. – I think his game is more suitable for such defense when Christas Koumadje is on the field, because Lukas has float, punches from the average, and when they start throwing from a distance, the opponents become very difficult. I’m glad it worked. “

Schiller praised the other two reserve players for Žalgiris. Martin Geben scored 12 points, bounced 4 balls, made 3 assists, scored 23 utility points and played the best game of his career in the Euroleague.

Karolis Lukošiūnas, who played 14 minutes and has 4 triples and 12 points, can also boast the same.

“Martinas played very well. He trains very well, works very well, came out of the shadows and worked very well, Schiller said. “I would also like to congratulate Karol, although I do not mention the players separately, who also did a great job not only shooting but also defending against Eriksson in the second half.”

The “Žalgiris” coach attended the press conference knowing perfectly the course of the match between “Baskonia” from Vitoria and “Panathinaikos” from Athens. Schiller followed this match because of Žalgiris’ ability to carry on: had the Basques lost, Kaunas residents would have little chance of doing so.

However, a few minutes after the press conference, the match in Athens ended with an invited victory, and Schiller’s words were prophetic: he hung up that the most important thing now would be to win the remaining two games.

“The goal is 18 wins. Over the past five years, 18 wins have guaranteed the playoffs, with 17 wins practically there, and at times 16, as you well know, was enough. 18 victories were and still are the goal. Then you have to fight, ”Schiller said.

Žalgiris in 2018-2019 in the season with 15 wins reached the playoffs, but even two seasons before 16 teams played in the Euroleague. Last season, 18 teams played for the first time in the Euroleague, but the coronavirus season ended after 28 rounds.

“In a normal season, we would talk 16 wins over the playoffs,” Schiller said. – There would be 17 or 18 victories in the playoffs. If we had won against Maccabi, we almost would have had it. Our goal was to make the playoffs and I understand that this (failure) affected everyone. “