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The green-white reminded us of our own shadow: instead of the energy, speed and precise division of the ball, on Friday night we saw their passive, stifled and primitive game. Kaunas residents, who had made a mistake in the attack up to 20 times, also received up to 5 blocks, when they suffered greatly from an often recurring situation in their defense. But mostly in a row.
VIDEO: All the anger poured out: the strenuous laying of M. Grigonis
A lot of bugs and a stalled attack.
20 errors by “Žalgiris” and even 12 balls intercepted by “Baskonia”, although the Basques are not famous for their defense, their rating on this side of the field is just below the Euroleague average. So how did the arena hosts manage to achieve such a result?
Here are some things. The first is the lack of vigilance by Kaunas residents. Slipping balls from M.Grigonis’ hands, M.Geben’s bouncing ball in the attack, immediately found in the hands of P.Henry, in the positional attack L.Lekavičius guessed the lateral line, 4 against 2 fast attack, ending with a lost ball and fast rival points on the other side of the field. And that’s not all, but just the four most striking examples of such mistakes.
Getty Images / Euroleague.net nuotr./Nigelas Hayesas
No less important was the slow or poor decision making. As a result, Žalgiris suffered particularly after Baskonia’s substitutions in 2v2 situations, which were not lacking. Increasingly common, Kaunas is much more likely to try to watch and pass the ball into the penalty area in such episodes, but in this match it was virtually impossible to do so. For example, Paulius Jankūnas won up to 2 fouls in an attack trying to fight for a better situation and waiting for a pass that came too late.
It was the slow passes and poorly chosen corners that were a big problem for the game as they tried to punish the Basques for their exchange tactics. The Kaunas team defenders gave the tall central man very little time to occupy the position and after only a few moments he walked away from them. The downside is that, unlike in the past, it was extremely difficult for little ones to attack in this match. Regarding this aspect, an episode from a third episode arises in my mind, when L. Lekavičius looks at A. Rubitas, who is trying to take the position under the basket, for just a second, and then his own attempt to attack ends with a hard and inappropriate throw.
Finally, another reason why only 68 points were earned was the height of the hosts. This season, Baskonia’s frequent choice to have up to 3 giant midfielders of the same type on the team has paid off this time. The people of Žalgiris were punished with up to five blocks in the penalty area, 4 of which were made by I. Diopas. Strange attempts by A. Rubitas and R. Jokubaitis to hit a 211cm tall midfielder, for whom it was the first block ever thrown this season, seemed strange. This high-rise effect is also perfectly illustrated by the following stroke graph, which you can see below:
Stop Shot / Žalgiris – Baskonia Hit Percentage
A situation that could not be stopped in any way
Baskonia, of course, took advantage of Kaunas’ mistakes and then scored a lot of lion points – 23. However, there was another situation, after which the white greens had to get the ball very often from under the net .
Žalgiris did not have a good day today, continually slipping on the muddy pitch. Here we can distinguish two categories of this element of the game: pindown a barrier where the player is on top with the ball and the same barriers where opponents hold the ball at the entrances to the penalty area and simulate the game behind.
Pindown During the barriers, the highs try to let the defender who is standing near the end line of the field get up. The problem was that Kaunas’ defenders always stumbled behind them and gave their opponents an advantage. We didn’t see any top lock Actions where opponents cannot even use the barriers when standing between the barrier and the defender being covered. Žalgiris missed the Basque striker, who did not rise to triple behind the barriers, but headed for the penalty area. Naturally, in this case, a tall man has to come to the rescue, but even that has not been completed. The defenders of “Baskonia” could choose how to use it: throw it themselves or make a pass under the basket. One of the clearest examples is the first attack of the third quarter, when R. Giedraitis, who escaped from M. Grigonis and turned under the barrier, made a pass to T. Jekiri and scored 2 points below the basket .
These barriers were used even more successfully by Žalgiris’s opponents when the player with the ball on the other side of the field pretended to focus with his back. “Baskonia” deftly slowed down the game when he received the ball, but after a few seconds a clever barrier followed on the weak side of the defense, for which the Kaunas team was not prepared at all. Rokas Jokubaitis and Lukas Lekavičius were attacked more than once in such situations and on practically every occasion the success guaranteed for the Basque team.
Summary
Gray party, gloomy and without more beautiful signs “Žalgiris”. Although Martin Schiller aptly mentioned the rest of the same teams after the game, it must be admitted that hardly a few energetic Kaunasers have been seen this season. Therefore, they were sanctioned by the Baskonia team, who did not show a wonderful game, for what was the first victory after four failures.
VIDEO: “UrBONUS”: vision of G.Žiemelis, comments on the transformations of D.Zavackas and “Žalgiris”
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