The most anticipated match of the season that didn’t justify the name: Shar’s woes and the surrounding “Žalgiris” | Euroleague

54-57. Start of the fourth quarter. After a good leg, Rokas Jokubaitis can reduce the advantage to Žalgiris with an initiative in his hands. After playing a good game, the Lithuanian takes over the ball and decides to put it in the basket. Unfortunately, the ball bounces off the goal and Kyle Kuric shoots a triple through his hands on the other side of the field. Kaunas attacks only once during the next 7 attacks, which decides the fate of the match.

Was Rock’s poor decision on the fast attack the main reason for the loss? Definitely not. But who knows how the course of the game would have changed. Let’s analyze what were the reasons for the worst result in the attack and what allowed Barça to celebrate the victory on the occasion of the return of Šarūnas Jasikevičius.

Surrounded attack

It’s no secret that Shar and the teams he leads are always extremely aggressive when attacking opponents’ defenders. picenrole (two before two). Especially if in that team the defenders play the first violins and the choice of other options in the attack is poor. Suffice it to recall the 2-week Catalan game against Crvena zvezda, when J. Loyd and Ch. Walden, who scored almost 19 and 12 points respectively in the Euroleague, finished the game with 0 and 7, scoring only 2 shots of 14.

The very idea is to isolate the creative players from the team, force them to drop the ball, and allow others to improvise. Knowing that the attack of “Žalgiris” is very supported this season Pikenrolais of speed and transfer (hand-to-hand transfers) situations, such a defense system is particularly unfavorable for them. I also had to face such aggression probably for the first time this Euroleague season.

Barcelona started the match with P.Oriola in the center position and in my opinion it was Shar’s tactical decision to throw Davies onto the field later, which gave him the opportunity to attack A.Rubit under the basket . And it worked perfectly. Going into the game, the American caused two fouls by A. Rubit in a single attack, entered the game with several accurate shots and scored a total of 16 tracks and 22 utility points.

Meanwhile, with P.Oriola in the center position, Barça aggressively applied Stepouto defense tactics. When David entered the field, all the barriers were automatically replaced. The Spaniards alternated between these two defense systems throughout the match, but at the end, in the 4th half of the match, they stopped completely on the tactic of everything. This was the main reason for the already mentioned dry section of Žalgiris.

The logic of that choice was simple. The residents of Kaunas were perfectly prepared to attack leave, but caught in deep suffering attacking the changes. prior to leave the short high crossover maneuver and fast transmission worked perfectly. This led to the arrival of an additional defender to the penalty area, so the people of Žalgiris created 4 on 3 situations. Too bad they weren’t always able to use them, missing a few three-point shots in the first half of the game. Too, pikenrolams When he was high, the tall people of Barça did not always manage to return to their man, and Žalgiris distinguished himself in this way several times. The most memorable was the excellent transfer from R. Jokubaitis to J. Lauvergne, when P. Oriola did not return to the basket in time.

Meanwhile, before the exchange defense, Kaunas seemed to have no plan, unless that plan – a primitive defense of 1v1 defenders. Before talking about that, it should be added that both teams were well versed. in the game of opponents – attacking from the classic combinations was unsuccessful and an extremely high level of physique, which played a particularly important role in this match. Therefore, it is natural that the interrupted combinations would be changed to improvise picenrolai, during which Barça changed. This left Th.Walkupas, M.Grigonis or L.Lekavičius 1v1 mainly with B.Davies, one of the tallest defenders in the Euroleague defending on the perimeter. I counted 15-17 attacks, in which the Catalans changed only in the second half of the match. We received only two attempts by “Žalgiris” to get the ball into the penalty area.

The attacks in the first 3 seconds of the game are extremely eloquent. When the combinations of “Žalgiris” stopped, M. Grigonis tried to attack Davies twice and L. Lekavičius tried to attack 1. One attack ended in error, the other two: shots in the hands. Kaunas residents burned even more in the fourth quarter.

During the 7 attacks in which Barça changed, only one ended successfully, when P.Oriola stumbled in the penalty area. It was strange to see Žalgiris people attack this defense without having a clue. One player dribbles twice, then another, then the third, and a few seconds later another is forced to attack from an awkward situation. Or when attacking one, four take their place. No attempt to take advantage of basketball is strange and that the tall ones themselves do not demand a ball under the basket. Throughout the game, the Barça defense was not under pressure after the substitutions, which came easily and their work ended.

The result of all this defense? The head of the snake – M. Grigonis, Th.Walkupas and L. Lekavičius – scored just 15 points together, leaving the field with an average of 30. He made 5 successful passes instead of the usual 9.6 and made 9 errors in place of the usual 4.7. Eloquent.

Boats is in trouble

The powerful Barcelona did not shine either. The team, which has assembled an impressive talent, seems to have fallen into a mini-pits again; After a good stretch in November, when their game improvement turned into victories, this team looks back at the path of the search.

But his rivals also contributed to that on Friday. Here we can get to the only positive aspect of the match for “Žalgiris”. Finally he saw the fight, the aggression on the defense, the concentration. Kaunas’ level of physicality seems to have surprised not only the spectators, but also the Barça players. Both the excellent preparation for the opponents’ combinations and the significantly improved communication of the players contributed to the better result on defense. It is difficult to say if this level of preparation and concentration of the players depended more on knowing Shar’s combinations or having extra days to prepare a match.

Except for some successful combinations by K. Kuric and B. Davies, the Barça team was stagnant. Strigo and in the simplest places: making an extra pass, not facing the defense by playing the ball (“Žalgiris” caused 3 errors). When many players made mistakes and found no good options in the team’s schematics, then they began to feel rethought after receiving the ball, so they were often slow to make the right decisions.

At the end of the match, the advantage was created by those few rare mistakes by Kaunas residents on their side of the field. Abrines’ 3-pointer was very painful with the result of 56:62, when J. Lauvergne did not speak with the defender, in which direction he should turn N. Calathes. Pikenrolo and his entry into the area provoked aid, which released A. Abrines.

A. Hanga made a decisive accent, in which Žalgiris took some risks. R. Jokubaitis allowed deeply to help the penalty area of ​​the same flat side during defense, when A. Rubitas gave perhaps too much freedom and space to make a quick pass with the ball to the former player. A. Hanga hit his only triple of 4 and the difference became double digits.

Summary

The beauty of Shar’s return ended in the opening minutes of the match. Barcelona won up to 43 errors in the match. And while it is worrying that Žalgiris doesn’t have a more interesting idea of ​​how to attack against the exchange defense, one can be glad of the progress on the other side of the field.

Few teams have the same length and athleticism in defense as Barcelona, ​​so a better attack should recover; it is more important to maintain the progress demonstrated in defense.