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Yes, for the Žalgiris it is a season of renewal. Of course, the injuries of the two main players in third position do not make the situation any easier. What’s more, in the last year we were used to seeing the upward curve of the Kaunas team’s game in the last leg of the season, which gave a lot of hope in the fight for the place in the top eight. But after Thursday night’s game, the bottom line remains the same: we are exactly on the opposite side of the road. The team that achieved 6 wins in a row in December no longer exists, as does the attack by hurricane “Žalgiris”, aggressive defense and harmonious team play. Opponents have unraveled the one-sided game of Kaunas, who, faced with the exchange defense, still cannot find effective ways to attack it.
In the first match between them, the Istanbul club seemed from a lower league, but how quickly things turned upside down. The arrival of M. Guduričius and the extra time to adjust the game worked perfectly for I. Kokoškovs and during this period the Turkish club added 13 wins and 2 losses to their account. Let’s take a look at the changes to Fenerbahce’s game and the highlights from the 30-round match with Žalgiris.
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The Fenerbach revival
The start of the renewal was not successful for the Turks: only 5 victories were achieved in the first 15 matches. After acquiring many new rotating players and replacing Ž.Obradovičius, Fenerbahče’s team clearly saw a foul play. One loss was followed by another, and the 20-30 point losses in November-December seriously shook I. Kokoshov’s chair.
The main reasons for this were the typical characteristics of the new team: players who only try to find their place on the field and understand the role assigned to them by the coach, poor alignment, not choosing effective combinations, stagnation in attack, not knowing how to continue attacks and defensive rotations.
E. Ulanov, D. Pierre, L. Brown, J. Eddie, D. Barthel – They all play a big role in Turkish rotations, but they didn’t play in their ranks last season. They are all very different players, I. Kokoškovs took the time to use them correctly. At the start of the season, Brown was obviously too full with the ball. Although the American is extremely strong physically and has been able to create shots for himself or others even in a stalled attack, his 15-20 second non-separation on the ball simply killed Fenerbahche’s attack rhythm and rendered it ineffective. Meanwhile, at this stage of the season, he rises from the bench, well aware of his role and the combinations in which he can attack himself. His teammates know this very well, which greatly improves the microclimate and the team’s location on the pitch.
Photo from Euroleague.net/Lorenzo Brown
Naturally, the Turks completely changed the book of their combinations, in which countless new and inventive schemes by I. Kokoshov appeared. Admittedly, this Serbian coach has great modernity and many options. In addition, the correct execution requires more time to grind them. In the early part of the season, there was a clear lack of quality when filling the combinations, there was a lack of compatibility when moving on site and poor quality during barriers. Some combinations worked well, but other times the Fenerbahche players looked at each other while standing and didn’t understand what to do next. This pushed the team into the poor sections and in the all-match draw to the aforementioned losses by 20 or 30 points.
However, the defense and the lack of clarity in it suffered the most. 2 players against 1 opponent was a very common thing to do, and aggression on defense sometimes just didn’t exist. With the arrival of M. Guduričius, the Fenerbahche significantly increased the height and versatility of its starting five. Defense swapping has become commonplace in Turkish defense, helping to start to stop opponent combinations and reduce the number of situations where an advantage is easily created in an attack.
Photo from Getty Images / Euroleague.net/Edgar Ulanov and Marko Guduričius
It was a very difficult moment for Kokoškov and the Fenerbahche team changed. The accolades should travel to the club’s management, which showed little patience in basketball while retaining the coach. The arrival of M. Guduričius worked like a magic bridge with a magic wand, after which the Turkish team demonstrates the best results in the entire Euroleague: 13 wins and 2 losses. Revenge has been achieved for Žalgiris, and it is time for us to examine this as well.
The most important part of the match
Half of the second half. The score is 26:32 in favor of Fenerbahche. The Turks finished the fourth with a 13-0 lead and gained a 19-point lead at the long break. Žalgiris was no closer to the rivals throughout the match. And this 5-minute section perfectly illustrated Kaunas’s problems in every game.
After a minute break, the Turks put pressure on the “Žalgiris” players and send an additional person to double Th.Walkupas. With the effort of the team, the guests pass the ball, but the attack starts very late, there are only 14 seconds left. When the combination collapses due to the change of “Fenerbahče” during the barriers, the residents of Kaunas have very little time to take advantage of the advantages: only 4-5 seconds. We have seen this image too often.
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What’s more, the Verdiblanco once again attacked these advantages as a priority for the defenders. The problem is that none of them have a combination of speed and height enough to beat mobile tall opponents, so 1v1 attempts on the perimeter ended dry. In the first half of the match, where “Žalgiris” scored only 26 points, 6 of those attack attempts ended exactly 0 points. Inefficient, but better still, exploitation of these advantages in the penalty area. The thrown ball shrunk the defense there and a few passes back to the perimeter gave plenty of room for shots. It’s a shame that a significant portion of your Kaunas residents have lost their vacancies.
The attack of the exchange defense is an obvious Achilles heel of “Žalgiris” and this problem is evident throughout the season. Individually, players cannot effectively punish this defense, and there is also no super team plan based on passing and movement. Even the individual attack is not completely resolved: the location of Kaunas residents on the field is often extremely poor and the defenders do not have enough space to attack 1v1.
Recently, dissatisfaction with judges and the energy wasted on them has been particularly notable. Perhaps this reflects not only dissatisfaction with the work of the judges, but also the mood within the team. I honestly no longer see faith and fire in the Kaunas team, believing in getting into the playoffs. Some players prefer to shake hands rather than return to defense. For Marius Grigonis, after an opponent’s leg not registered, it is more important to argue with the referee than to immediately return to defense in a quick attack. The Lithuanian, being the last in defense, with his disputes allowed D. Pierier to gain a few steps ahead and put the ball in the basket.
Grigonis
The transition defense was another big problem with this start and game. Due to the ineffective attack from Kaunas, the Turks had many opportunities to attack quickly and “Žalgiris” often found himself in 4 or 5 situations. In them, the Fenerbahče players crossed easily into the free areas and accumulated points; During this streak, J. Vesely scored a significant portion of his points, finishing the game with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
In the attack we also saw an interesting attack by Kokškov against “Žalgiris” Ice Defense detail. The seniors on his team often changed the side of the barrier for Kaunas when applying this element of defense, the goal of which was to prevent opponents from using it. This is called a barrier flip’as He left the defenders of Kaunas behind and allowed N. De Colo to attack the Kaunas heights from on high. This gave a lot of space to the French, partially eliminated “Grunwald” Ice and Fenerbahche sharply raised picenrole efficiency.
Summary
Another desperate performance from “Žalgiris”.
Kaunas reaches the decisive matches of the 4th season completely without inertia. The only consolation is that relatively weaker opponents are waiting for them.
There’s no margin of error.
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