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Photo: BNS
BNS photo
Today, Utena’s Juventus showed extraordinary character, eliminated the 14-point deficit and knocked down the champion himself – Kaunas “Žalgiris” (90:87) with the accurate two-point Vaidas Kariniauskas in the Lithuanian Basketball League (Betsafe- LKL).
Man of the match
For the first time in the club’s history, Juventus beat Žalgiris in Utena, and the team’s chief strategist, Žydrūnas Urbonas, highlighted in the post-match press conference that he always unconditionally believed in his team, despite playing against the strongest Lithuanian club.
“Yeah! You really should go celebrate. Hey, what are you saying here? I imagine this match, so if you climb a fourteen-story building, you accidentally slide on your head through a snowstorm and still follow. alive. It’s so unreal, Urbon said after the victory. – I yelled every game to the students that we have to take this victory. We can do that, I brought you that information.
Of course, somewhere maybe someone is not playing, something is tired, something is not there, even though we don’t have Gecevičius with us, but I felt like we could win today. Without underestimating “Žalgiris”, today I felt like it was being taken and I had the same confidence to say it. We rewrite history, it seems that we have never won against “Žalgiris” in Utena. It’s a shame that our people can’t be happy with this win because of the whole situation, you’re still playing for them. I think men are heroes today, I bow my head.
Today we played three against three in style, four boys and Karinė (Vaidas Kariniauskas – Ed. Past.), We exchanged defenses and it was nice to see what we do. In the fourth quarter, we allowed opponents to score just 11 points and we connected with nothing but defense. Of course, there were also certain nuances in the attack, we did basic things that were difficult for Žalgiris to solve. Very good.”
– It is symbolic that Juventus’ 400th match in the LKL Championship ended in victory against Žalgiris …
– Even more interesting. Of course, I don’t think this is a tragedy for Žalgiris. Like I said, it’s great that they saved Marius Grigonis and Thomas Walkup. You have to understand that the Euroleague is waiting for them and they can afford to lose more than one match in the local championship. Of course, your player partner matches our budget and more, it’s fun. “Žalgiris is Žalgiris like a nine-headed dragon. One severed head, three grow. For example, Lukošiūnas, was the leader of Šiauliai, now bought by Žalgiris, but he once scored 15 points in Šiauliai. trajakais. Good team, I wish you the best of luck in the future and in the Euroleague to be in the top eight for what you are worth. Now we simply realize that we have overcome that power. Funny.
– Vaidas Kariniauskas made 7 mistakes, but still stretched the team. In your opinion, would it be possible to achieve such results without Kariniauskas?
– I can’t decide that. I made the decision to take Kariniauskas and there were 4 options closer: two Lithuanians and two foreigners. So the decision was the right one, we needed a player to manage the team, and possibly a taller one, although he was automatically risking a triple. Today “Žalgiris” also took a chance, but Vaidas scored a decisive triple. Once he hit the three-point line, I said, “Get into that basket.” In our kind of work, you add value to a person and they become even better than before somewhere. It is an individual job and he does it very well. Vaid advances. Thanks to him, thanks to his head, his mother, his parents for creating such that he was brave in doing so. Only the brave are accompanied by success.
– Kariniauskas began to focus against opponents smaller than him alone in the second half of the match. Was there such a plan here so as not to accustom opponents to their game back to the basket and get that win later?
– It can be said that 7 Vaid’s mistakes did not make him feel the rhythm. It has some problems, I don’t want to say any here because then the opponents can bite. Vaid has nuances when he doesn’t play solidly, doesn’t pick up the pace, but in the fourth quarter he broke through and was perfectly focused. We agreed to make three combinations because we saw that the rivals did not solve them, they did not do anything, so we won in the same places. Kariniauskas’s back tried to play before, but he was wrong, he lost a couple of times under the basket, it was a luxury to throw so many fines. Today, we realized the fines with 60 percent accuracy, we lost a lot below the basket, so we still have reserves.
– Will the win against “Žalgiris” further boost confidence and will he fight for second place in the regular season?
– No. We don’t think so. We believe that the next match is with Šiauliai and how to prepare for him as much as possible. If you start to feel dizzy, you don’t know where, the mess will start in your head.
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