Two sides of the game: an elite defense that forced the Crvena Zvezda club to capitulate

Two basketball players from Kaunas “Žalgiris”, Marius grigonis Y Nigel Hayes, together they scored 44 utility points, while the entire team of Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade – 59. However, the most prominent accent of Kaunas victory does not fit the utility score indicators: the Lithuanian champions locked up the Serbs in a defense with strength of steel.

A week ago, after scoring a total of 62 points in the Barcelona basket, Žalgiris’s Crvena Zvezda team has now thrown the team into an extremely confusing defensive web and allowed them to shoot exactly the same amount.

This is a repeat of Žalgiris’ best achievement in the defensive season. 62 points Martino schillerio The pupils also allowed the Istanbul Fenerbahce team to pitch some time ago. But even the match with this Turkish giant did not feature such impressive numbers at the time.

Crvena Zvezda now scored 14 points in the third quarter and added just four in the fourth quarter. Both teams advanced to the deciding quarter with Žalgiris leading by two points, but then Dejano Radonjiciaus the men got so stuck that in 10 minutes they threw all three triples from the side and hit only two of eight points, eight times as bad.

Entering the decisive leg of the match and the result is roughly the same, a basketball player like Jordan loydas he often rises to an even higher level and takes individual steps to break up the match. This time, however, Crvena Zvezda’s wizard did not resemble the victorious team’s icebreaker in the most important moment. In the fourth quarter, he scored just two points, and although he scored a total of 16 (3/9 dvit., 2/5 trit.), It can be said that most of the rival leader was isolated. Here the direct merits travel Thomasui Walkupui, in sections close to their shares, the value of the American and M. Grigonis.

It is true that the latter spent a total of 36 minutes on the pitch this time, it is to be expected that in the second half of the week the fight against Real Madrid does not hurt.

It is true that not everything was so easy for the residents of Kaunas, especially seeing what happened before the break. Crvena Zvezda arrived in Kaunas with Corey waldenu – an attacking organizer, scoring 11 points in the Euroleague. However, this a little heated decided that he could not help the team this time.

It was not only he who helped the Serbs. There was no Quino Colomo, Langstono Hello, Duo Reatho Y Landry noko. Let’s add a tall one Johnny O’Bryantą, who left the team after disagreements with the coach, and we will have a very crumbling squad.

Thus, “Crvenai Zvezda” obviously lacked attacking talent, but D. Radonjičius placed a higher five against “Žalgiris” with such successful basketball players as Dejanas Davidovacas Y Marko Simonovičius edges. Unbeaten in the team’s defense against opponents’ shots, Kaunas was thirteen-point deficit in the second half (22:35). Simonovičius only scored 12 points for Kaunas residents in just a few minutes. However, later Žalgiris stabilized the situation by activating the defense: none of Crvena Zvezda’s guides had such an easy life anymore.

He was allowed too much: This season, the 35-year-old former Serbian basketball player scores just 3.5 points on average in the Euroleague, but Kaunas has now scored 16 points and repeated his season record. This match with “Žalgiris” and the showdown with Vitorija “Baskonia” in the first round were the only two battles of the season, when this basketball player who survived the twilight of his career scored double-digit points.

But after a long break, especially in the fourth quarter, there was no smell left.

“It just came to our notice then. It was thrown at Rubit before it was possible to raise those hands higher. We need to prevent the players from taking advantage of their strengths. Afterwards, we activated the defense and didn’t hit him anyway,” said M. Grigonis after the game.

The ball was mainly focused on Mr. Loydu, who was left with one-on-one attacks in which the American was restricted to the maximum and was content with only difficult shots.

Although Crvena Zvezda did not make many mistakes (13), Žalgiris realized such situations relentlessly, turning the opponents’ total loss of balls into 22 points. For such a modest overall match performance, that’s a solid number.

“There is such a book in the United States, probably written in the United Kingdom, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. Today we had a fairy tale about two sides of the game. We played much better after a long break, we were more physical, we took away many of their advantages. They lacked many players, the situation is uncomfortable, but this is already the case in the Euroleague, we are playing in the playoffs and we have to take advantage of that,

“Žalgiris” on Tuesday night on Nemunas Island certainly did not play a game within his means, but M. Schiller’s men proved once again that they could get out of difficult situations by applying game-changing changes on defense.

As M. Grigonis said after the game, the Kaunas residents took advantage of the loss of the “red star”, which is very important at this stage of the season. The start of March in the Euroleague marks the final stage of the playoff race, where every mistake can be significant. Now “Žalgiris” still remains on this route.