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The Kaunas “Žalgiris” team continues their performance in the Euroleague and in the third round they will play again, this time they will visit Belgrade and fight with the “Crvena Zvezda” team.
Unlike before, this time it is not worth highlighting the famous fans, because it simply will not be – due to the coronavirus situation in the country – Crvena Zvezda plays in an empty arena, where last week by 90:73 he surely surpassed against the men’s Vitoria Baskonia and recorded the first victory in the Euroleague.
Let’s take a look at what awaits the people of Žalgiris on Tuesday night. First of all, Crvena Zvezda is a changed team, which was taken over by Sasha Obradovich. The Serbian club has struggled with the strategist in recent years, as the professionals they have worked with have not built any trust: Milan Tomičius has only been arrogant since he worked for the Crvena Zvezda team, which is why he has received negative reviews both for speeches as for questionable plays. When M. Tomičius was fired, Draganas Šakota arrived, who already wanted to resign from the coaching position, but was persuaded to work again until the end of the season. The strict S.Obradovičius, who had good and bad episodes during his career, has now been called up, but he should be suitable for this team, which needed a licensed specialist.
S. Obradovičius entrusted all command of the attack to Jordan Loyd. The American moved from the Valencia team to Valencia, which had a reserve attacking defender, so he often didn’t get enough minutes or enough shots to show his full potential.
Loydas was characterized by a very unstable game: last year, Athens Panathinaikos scored 27 points, grabbed 5 balls, made 8 assists and scored 41 points in 31 minutes. This was followed by a match with 1 point, then 19 points and the other two matches, only 5 together. Loyd’s very shaky game was productive (11.1 points in 22 minutes) but lacked utility scores, averaging 8.8.
Loyd improved his performance record last week, when he threw 30 points to the Basque basket. He got stuck with an efficiency score of 7 points, but caught 6 balls, which is his best performance in his career. Mr. Loyd is like Alexei Swede in the ranks of Chimki in the Moscow region: he throws 16 during the game, of which 6.5 are. Before the season, there was speculation in the Serbian media that Mr. Loyd would seriously claim the award for the most productive player, and this was later implicitly acknowledged by the American himself in the interview. Although only two rounds have been played and Sweden and Shane Larkin have not played a single match, Loyd leads the race for the Alphons Ford Prize of 22.5 points per match, leaving Mike James, who is 19 points behind. , Kevin Pangas, Rokas Giedraitis and Krunoslav Simon.
Of course, the sample so far is too small, but Loyd’s potential to claim the most productive player of the regular season award is obvious. His role in the team will certainly not diminish, and Crvena Zvezda does not have the resources to strengthen the players who can take shots from this player. Also, in the game schematics, J. Loyd is given various combinations and is given a lot of freedom to decide the end of attacks himself. Since the Ford award is not affected by the team’s performance, Crvena Zvezda may still be last, but if Loyd’s average is the highest, he will win the award.
Žalgiris boss Coach Martin Schiller made it clear that when it comes to stopping this player, it is necessary to find the right opponents and of course the most suitable player is Thomas Walkup who has the best defense of all defenders in chain. Th.Walkup’s task will be to catch the opponent and not let him even take the ball, which will not be easy, but possible. Marius Grigonis and Steve Vasturia can also successfully work with J. Loyd on defense. It is true that the latter receives praise from the coaches for a good defense, but on the “visual examination” we see a number of his mistakes and obvious shortcomings of the Euroleague experience.
So far, Loyd is the only Crvena Zvezda player to score a double digit score. He also spends the most minutes at almost 27.5. Those closest to him are two newcomers to the Euroleague from European Cup battles: Langston Hall (24 min, 9.5 points) and Torrian Walden (22 min, 9 points).
L. Hallas, who moved from Patras to Promitheas last season, showed off his player’s skills and made up to 11 assists, which was nearly half the team’s passes. Meanwhile, T. Walden’s task is to bring energy and accurate shots from the bench; He manages to make almost 8 shots in his time.
So far, it would be difficult to point anything out: Markas Simonovičius earns 8 points each, but scored all 16 points in the last game, when he realized 4 points out of three out of 5. The 34-year-old veteran is still the player who can punish. to opponents with long shots and cannot Allow to feel the throw, as otherwise it could cause many of the problems that Baskonia had.
Crvena Zvezda also has the most obvious gap that needs to be addressed: the front lines. Here, a season ago, Landry Nnok was acquired from the ALBA team in Berlin, but he did not undergo a medical examination due to health problems, so his contract did not come into force. No one has filled this gap so far and Ognjen Kuzmic and Doup Reath have remained in the center position.
Both players practically share the minutes equally. If the Serbian scores 7.5 points and bounces 7.5 balls, thus taking advantage of his chances, then the Australian from Belgrade FMP does not fit at all in the Euroleague and registers averages of 3.5 points, 3 rebounds and only 1.5 points useful.
The highly advantageous forward position, where veteran M.Simonovičius, who plays in three-point attack, is very vulnerable in defense, is very vulnerable near the basket. He is replaced by Dejan Davidovac, who also spends most of his time on the perimeter.
Obviously “Žalgiris” with Joffrey Lauvergne, Augustine Rubit, Martin Geben, Nigel Hayes and Paulius Jankūnas has a more solid front line than “Crvena Zvezda”. Interestingly, Crvena Zvezda is fourth in terms of rebounds (36 per game) and has fought better for both Fenerbahche Istanbul and Baskonia. However, opponents rack up a lot of points in the penalty area, where they constantly attack Slow O. Kuzmičius or use M. Simonovičius’s defense gaps in “one-on-one” situations.
We will see how Žalgiris manages to fight Crvena Zvezda tonight starting at 8pm.
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