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The Kaunas Žalgiris team will try this Thursday to end a disagreeable 4-game losing streak in the Euroleague. It will not be easy, as the Zenit team from Saint Petersburg arrives.
The Russian club also has 5 victories, but they got them in 7 matches, when Žalgiris’ team needed 10 matches. Zenit are currently the second team in terms of lost points, second only to the men of Barcelona.
Zenit, which started the season with two wins against Istanbul’s Anadolu Efes (73:69) and Barcelona (74:70), faced a coronavirus and missed up to four games and is now forced to follow the schedule . As a result, the Russian club visited Vitoria on Monday and beat the Baskonians by 77:70.
Xavier Pascual already speaks of a diminishing reserve of strength, but Zenit will be able to replenish it this weekend, since there will be no fight in the United League and he will have 7 days until the next duel in the Euroleague. On December 8, Zenit will start the Euroleague in a postponed match in Valencia, and in a few days they will travel to challenge the men of Real Madrid.
Last year, Zenit achieved only 8 victories in 28 rounds and two of them were won against Žalgiris. On the last day of the game for the coronavirus pandemic, the St. Petersburg team beat the accelerated Kaunas 76:75, which was already on the heels of the top eight teams.
Last season’s Zenit team was drafted for the European Cup, which was reflected in the choice of players. Joan Plaza had planned to compete in the second tournament in terms of capacity, but the Russian club received a nominal invitation and entered the Euroleague after securing Gustav Ayono, whose best days are in the past. Colton Iverson, Andrew Albicy, Tim Abromaitis or Alex Renfroe are nothing more than European Cup players, as evidenced by their current jobs.
This summer, Zenit met according to the wishes of the Spanish X. Pascualis, and here many Euroleague players met: Artūras Gudaitis, Kevin Pangos, KCRivers, Billy Baron and Alex Poythress, who shone in the European Cup.
The Zenit team became a very suitable refuge for A. Gudaitis (10.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 12.8 points), because here he can do what he does best: play “two against two” and one back to the bag. At the AX Armani in Milan, Ettore Messina wanted to take things out of the center that he had never done, leading to a failed season. It’s completely different at the Zenit, where a 208cm tall Lithuanian with K. Pangos makes a great picnic, in which he scores 1,438 points during the attack and this is the 3rd result of the tournament, only below the tandem of the Olympiacos of Piraeus centers. Back in the basket A.Gudaitis is also successfully dealing with his opponents – 1,364 points per attack – 3rd result in the Euroleague.
For A. Gudaitis, the last two games were the best of the season: against ALBA in Berlin he scored 16 points, caused 10 fouls and scored 24 utility points, and in Vitoria he scored 13 points, grabbed 7 balls and registered 22 points of utility. Our team has the absolute best “plus / minus” indicator of the team (plus 28), and with it on the parquet “Zenit” shows the best defense index (84 points per 100 attacks) and the third best attack index (98 , 9 points per 100 attacks). ).
A big problem in A. Gudaitis’s game are fouls: in 20 minutes he breaks the rules 3.8 times, and in 2 games out of 6 he used the foul limit. Such a phenomenon is unusual in the game of A. Gudaitis, because during his career he never chose offenses so fast; Until then, the highest average was 3 in 24 minutes of play (in the 2018-2019 season).
The A.Gudaitis A.Poythress reservoir can also cause many problems for “Žalgiris”. Interestingly, this American also racks up fouls quickly, breaking the rules 3.4 times in 20 minutes. Before ALBA at the end of the game, Zenit did not have this player or A. Gudaitis, so Will Thomas had to be pushed to center position.
Poythressas, Monroe
Poythress is a player who accumulates a large number of points after his successful fights when he approaches the ball to the basket and has to reload it from above or catch a “parachute” sent by his teammates and thus effectively complete the attack. There are also many “two-on-two” games with this player, and the main difference with A. Gudaitis is that with A. Poythress on the floor, “Zenit” can switch defenses.
W. Thomas, 34, always starts the game with the fifth starter and it doesn’t show much in attack (7.6 points), but he does a lot of useful work: 5.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 13.3 utility points, which is what allows you to be the second most useful player on the team.
The understudy for W. Thomas is Andrei Zubkov, 29, who shows up in 15 minutes and doesn’t really hurt the video. In contrast, his “plus / minus” is the fourth best (plus 12) on the team. A.Zubkovas is a dedicated player in defense, and attacks in attack only when he has a good chance: he has made 9 colonies of 13 (69.2%) and 4/11 triples (36.4%).
For many, Mateušas Ponitka, who killed “Žalgiris” in last season’s match in Kaunas, became a curse when Šarūnas Jasikevičius claimed that he would have defended himself better than some of his students. This Pole (8.6 points and 14.1 points) is Zenit’s most useful player.
The forward shone in the last game with Baskonia, shooting 18 points, grabbing 8 balls, causing 9 fouls and scoring 28 utility points. M.Ponitka occupies and plays a role in X.Pascual’s schemes, when K. Pangosas is sitting on a bench or B. Baron does not organize the attacks. M.Ponitka still has a risky glitch: poor shooting from distance, this time only 27.3 percent attack. (3/11) accuracy, and the running average is around 30 percent.
M.Ponitka is replaced by KCRivers, who finished last season in “Žalgiris”. This American looks boring – he scored 6.1 points in 24 minutes, bounced 2.4 balls, but scored just 3.1 utility points. 8 triples of 24 allow him to capture 33.3 percent. But we know very well how dangerous the pitcher is and it is not for nothing that Martin Schiller highlighted the Zenit snipers. Fans still disagree on which Žalgiris needed to stay: Artūras Milaknis or KCRiversas. On Thursday these players will meet and this microduel will be very exciting.
Another player who relies on long range shots is Austin Hollins. The sniper starts the match in the starting five, but competes in just 17 minutes. The reason for this, unstable play, the American shot 3 points out of 3 out of 4 in one game, and in all the others the 4 shots fly by. He played in Vitoria for only 7 minutes and did not return to the pitch after a long break, and his minutes went to Vitaly Fridzon. Hollins’ injury has not been announced, so it is possible that the coach is simply not satisfied with the performance of this player, who has thrown more three points than two points this season, 24 against 14, and hit 33.3 percent. long shots.
Pangosas
Zenit also managed to defeat another former Žalgiris resident in the market: K. Pangos, who passed last season due to injury. The Canadian did not shine in the Barcelona team and became a free agent, and there are no good players in the market, so Zenit logically grabbed a player like X. Pascualis, a good two-on-two player. K. Pangos is still a long way from remembering the player who led Žalgiris to the Euroleague quarter-finals, although form seems to be improving. At the start of the season, he scored 23 points and 25 points in the Anadolu Efes basket in Istanbul, and a week later the Barcelona team scored 15 points, but did not enter the double-digit performance zone for the next 5 games. K. Pangos’ horse is thrown from a distance, but so far they fly by: the goal has only been reached by 28.2 percent. (11/39) shots from the perimeter. However, K. Pangos is the one who plays the most in the team (at 28.5 minutes) and is second in the Euroleague in assists (6.9), and X. Pascualis has said that he will still “break” in attack. . Hopefully this does not happen in the Žalgiris arena.
It is not surprising that K. Pangos has to play many minutes, because Zenit simply do not have a reliable second player. Dmitry Chvostov is a seasoned local player, but he’s certainly not a Euroleague-level athlete who comes out on top after 5 minutes. Another well-known face, B. Baron, who has defended the honor of the Vilnius club, has to play in this position. Baron is a pitcher, but he can really kick the ball and substitute play on short passes. However, in his 20 minutes of play, the most he does is shoot, and he does so impressively, hitting 15 3-pointers of 44 attempts, which is 44.1 percent. Utility score stats of 10.3 points and 9.1 look solid during limited playtime, and he has thrown 6 of three points out of 10 to Chimki’s basket, which is the player’s personal best performance so far this season.
Looking at Zenit’s game in general, they are a very good duty team that takes advantage of the weaknesses of the rivals. This is exactly how Žalgiris, trained by Š.Jasikevičius, has been competing in recent years. The St. Petersburg team is certainly not among the leaders of the Euroleague in terms of available players and short bench, but in terms of play it leaves a good impression and seems to be gaining momentum after a long forced break due to the COVID outbreak. 19.
In attack, Zenit try to take advantage of their highs in a two-on-two game or put the ball under the basket for a front-line player who can center what not only centers like, but also Thomas. There are many passes to and from the penalty area, returning the ball to the triple where you can attack. If the opponents catch the snipers, the ball continues to spin around the perimeter until a freer attempt. It is true that Zenit do not really abuse triples: they shoot 23.4 triples per game, which is the tenth indicator of the Euroleague. “Žalgiris” attacks from the perimeter even less often: 20.1 times, which is the last place in the tournament. It is interesting that according to the shots hit (8.3: 7.5), Žalgiris is 12th and the Russian club only 16th, so throwing more does not mean hitting more.
Zenit’s main strength is not attack, but defense and hard work on its bag. X. Pascual’s skillful defense allows opponents to score just over 70 points, and according to this indicator, this is the second best result, only surpassed by Barcelona’s steel defense, which allows opponents to score 68 points each. The defense rating also shows the second result of Zenit: only 92.3 points per 100 attacks. Here is a stark contrast to “Žalgiris”, whose defense rating is last, even 105.1 points lost in 100 attacks. The people of Žalgiris show the second best attacking ranking (104.6 points per 100 attacks), when Zenit is only 12th (95 points per 100 attacks).
Obviously on Thursday we will see a team meeting of a completely different style: attack against defense or defense against attack. Who’s winning?
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