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Kaunas’ “Žalgiris” team in the Euroleague put on a great show for their fans on Tuesday, when they drove confidently with “Baskonia” 92:73. The Krepsinis.net portal offers the most interesting aspects of the duel.
Three-point rain and rival defense. Before the duel, we emphasized that “Baskonia” is one of the best defensive rated teams in the tournament, but Žalgiris’ team agreed to their efforts in their basket by hitting 18 3-pointers, 2 more than close and mid-range shots. Duško Ivanovičius tried various defense systems, but all did not work: no two-on-two exchanges, no passives when the center is waiting at the penalty line, no full exchange, no Stepoutas. By the way, the latter had stopped Žalgiris’s team a bit in the first part of the match, but then it didn’t work out at all.
Baskonia seemed very slow and sluggish, but it wouldn’t be fair to justify it with fatigue alone. Yes, the Basques have problems on the defensive line, where another player is clearly missing, and the last two rounds of the Euroleague were played without the injured Luca Vildoza, but in the actions of the players, the frustration and early capitulation was accentuated with every triple of Žalgiris. Nothing is as destructive as the long shots of opponents, when they are launched even in a quick attack with three against one; after such an episode, D.Ivanovičius laughed wryly.
The defense of Žalgiris can be commended, which worked very well and the biggest problem was the inability to deal with Youssoupha Fall again. Amazingly, Joffrey Lauvergne stood “one by one” against this giant, as if he were standing against a wall to shoot. Obviously, the Frenchman cannot face this giant without the help of his teammates. Later, Agustín Rubit tried to do it, receiving more help. It remains a problem how Žalgiris sees the detention of such outdated centers and it is really possible to better prepare for such giants of opponents. It is usually enough to not let them accelerate in the first half and then the opponent’s coaches leave them on the field with less audacity, because they see that this plan does not work.
When quarantine parties are currently banned, the residents of Kaunas organized a real three-point party on the arena floor, where opponents were punished by up to 8 different players, and Artūras Milaknis stood out the most, getting 5 out of 7 correct. only 17 minutes.
The veteran was a strong reminder of himself, having scored 5 triples in the last six games combined. To be fair, Milas could have shot more as it was very hot in the third half at the same time, but he didn’t get the ball from his teammates for a few minutes and had no chance to further penalize Baskonia. Now Milaknis’ triple is at 42.9 percent, a truly impressive figure.
“Žalgiris” pitched the longest pitches since February 6 this year, when he scored 19th in Istanbul with Anadolu Efes. True, that wasn’t enough then and the then Euroleague leaders still won – 96:91.
Force saved reservation. A very important aspect is that “Žalgiris” managed to maintain a reserve of strength before Thursday’s game: the bench scored 40 points and all twelve appeared on the field. Paulius Jankūnas, who scored 15 utility points, deserves the highest praise from the reserve. The captain did not face faster opponents multiple times on defense, but overall he was extremely solid. He finally hit the first triple after 11 in a row.
Lukas Lekavičius finally played a more solid match (13 points, 16 points), as 6 of the last 7 matches had scored single-digit points before. Rokas Jokubaitis was a great help (15 points), thus repeating his personal best result for the second time this season.
In terms of minutes, only Nigel Hayes played too much, even 28.5 minutes. The American also played a lot on the edge of the light, so he racked up the number of minutes. Perhaps it was not necessary to finish the game with this basketball player on the floor, but to return A. Milaknis himself. Augustine Rubit posted the best “over / under” indicator in 24 minutes – plus 19. It is gratifying that Marius Grigonis is left with 21 minutes, because his leadership and reliable defense will be needed against “Fenerbahce”.
We can also praise Karolis Lukošiūnas, who managed to hit both 3-pointers in 3 minutes. The sniper entered the field in a good mood, because “Žalgiris” had a victory in his pocket, and when he falls to his teammates, I feel much safer, so K. Lukošiūnas bravely attacked from the perimeter without a moment’s hesitation as if it was a fight between Betsafe-LKL. , not the Euroleague.
Falling out of rotation. What we talked about in the last article after the victory over Panathinaikos in Athens seems to come true: Martin Geben is slowly coming out of the rotation. This time, Martin Schiller didn’t use his third midfielder until “garbage minutes,” when the tall man usually served minutes in the first half of the game. Geben’s playing time is getting shorter and shorter and he seems to disappoint Austria. Perhaps this is an opportunity for Marek Blaževičius himself to take up the 5-7 minutes that M. Geben has recently spent on the field. Objectively speaking, M. Geben was never a clear player in the Euroleague level rotation: Šarūnas Jasikevičius’s schemes were favorable to him, because there was a lot of “two against two” game, many balls were put into the penalty area, where the center often had to carry the ball from above. Now the game is different, so M. Geben is chosen less and less, and is left with the rotation of J. Lauvergne and A. Rubit.
Thomas Walkup Pit. At the beginning of the season, the pale American showed a successful game in rounds 6-10 and took out “Žalgiris” behind him both in Vilerbana against ASVEL and in the match with Real Madrid, but now the American is back in a kind of gambling crisis. On defense, Th.Walkup is solid and blameless here, but the game does not stay in the opponent’s basket: in the last five games he has scored only 9 shots of 32 attempts (28%), earns 5 points each and accumulates 4.6 utility points. The hit percentage fell to 37.5 percent. colon (18/48) and 37 percent. three points (17/46).
Only 2 of 14 games Th.Walkupas threw penalties. Last season, he shot an average of 1.5 penalties per game, compared to just 0.5 this year. It is worth noting that the team itself shoots 4 fewer penalties than last season, 14 against 18. Th.Walkup can really compete better and this is one of “Žalgiris” reserves.
Lithuanian Baskonians. Rokas Giedraitis continued his series of tenuous matches: this time he scored 7 points, but hit only 3 shots of 9 attempts and was left with 2 utility points. While on the field (21 minutes), the guests spent up to 16 more points than they scored and this is the second worst result. In the third part, D.Ivanovičius desperately tried to let even Arturas Kurucs enter the field, who is usually invited only in the first part of the duel. This time in 9.5 minutes. latvis missed 4 of 5 pitches for -1 point.
Tadas Sedekerskis didn’t stand out either: he scored just two points in 21 minutes, but scored twice as many useful points as his colleague Rokas: 4. T. Sedekerskis grabbed 3, took 2 balls, allowing him to record that number. Interestingly, Alec Peters recorded 0 “over / under” on the chart, which is the best result, followed by T.Sedekerskis, the Žalgiris players who played for him scored only 2 points more than “Baskonia”.
conclusion. It was a great evening for “Žalgiris” and the victory was achieved against the rival of “his league”. This end of the first round started 2: 0. “Baskonia” is certainly not as bad as the result at the Kaunas shows, but this time it had absolutely no plot and in all respects it lagged behind the opponents. “Žalgiris” is no longer the team with the worst defense rating, the Chimki of the Moscow region are currently there. It is true that he has not played against Barcelona yet, so after the tour, everything can go back to the previous places. In any case, “Žalgiris” has shown solid work in the last two games and is in a very good starting position to beat the crisis Fenerbahče basketball players, who will come without Jan Vesely.
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