Žalgiris Evaluations: Elite Lauvergne Ability, Works of Grigonis and Jankūnas Cunning / News

Kaunas “Žalgiris” was not stopped by an outsider from the Euroleague. Intimidating the first two halves, Chimki in the Moscow region finally capitulated – 75: 102.

Žalgiris’s team, which scored 39 points in the third quarter, won the second half of the match 63:27.

Joffrey Lauvergne played a career game Friday night: 29 points, 9 rebounds and 38 utility points in 23 minutes.

Jonas Lekšas, a journalist for the website BasketNews.lt, praised Žalgiris’ individual performance in the match that ended with a sixth consecutive victory.

Joffrey Lauvergne – 10 points
23 min., 29 p. (13/14 dvit., 3/3 pun.), 9 atm. cam., 2 res. more than 38 points.

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The fact that Lauvergne is expecting an extraordinary night was felt in the first half: Chimki, cutting Kaunas’s 3-pointers, left a free penalty area, where the Frenchman had no rivals from the first minutes. Joffrey is one of the fastest tall buildings in the Euroleague after the barricades, and Rima Kurtinaitis’s army convinced himself of it in the most painful way: Lauvergne became the MVP of the tour. The tall man is also worth praising for the first pass after bouncing the ball, which repeatedly allowed Žalgiris’s team to move into a quick attack.

Marius Grigonis – 9.5 ball
27 min., 18 p. (3/4 dvit., 4/5 trit.), 8 rez. more, 3 pages, 21 benefits. Punctuation.

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Although Marius started the game nervously and did not avoid mistakes, his work was felt on the field from the first minutes, which allowed to record the successful passes of his career. After three less successful matches attacking from afar (3 of 14 trit.) Grigonis made perfect shots and was once again the number one man around whom “Žalgiris” attack turns. The Žalgiris defender oversaw Alexei Švedas in his defense and without a couple of mistakes in the first half of the game, Grigonis would have a hard time making accusations for working on his basket.

Nigelas Hayesas – 9 balai
25 min., 14 p. (1/2 dvit., 2/3 trit., 6/6 penalty), 3 atm. cam., 19 benefits. points.

Photo D.Lukšta

Another solid game from Nigel, with very good decisions on both sides of the field. Hayes goes on to argue that he is equally good at playing both fourth and third position, and his danger in attack the last six games has been greatly increased when hitting from distance – 15 3-pointers of 22.

Thomasas Walkupas – 8 rooms
20 min., 7 p. (2/5 dvit., 1/4 trit.), 5 atm. cam., 4 res. lost, 2 for. Cam., 0 pm, 5 pp. pr., 15 benefits points.

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For Walkup, pitches didn’t fall back by a good percentage, but he filled in all the major stat categories in solid numbers without making any mistakes. In addition to Vyacheslav Zaitsev, who missed on the left at the same time, Thomas did a very good job on defense, winning virtually every micro-survivor. Interestingly, after playing 18 games, the defender pitched and hit after the same number of two- and three-point pitches – 21 of 58.

Martin Geben – 8 points
9 min., 6 p. (3/4 dvit.), 8 atm. cam., 14 benefits. points.

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Lauvergne plays well with Rubit, which is why Martin Schiller has been struggling to find a place for Geben in the rotation lately, but performances like Chimki’s before have the Austrians thinking about how to give Lithuania more time as well. In just 9 minutes on the court, Geben repeated the record for utility scores and improved rebounds. Martin, who played with tremendous aggression, argues that he is worth the longest minutes of play, which is a pleasant headache for Schiller.

Lukas Lekavičius – 7 rooms
20 min., 8 p. (3/5 dvit., 2/2 baud.), 4 rez. more, 3 pages, 5 pages pr., 11 benefits points.

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3 errors was the worst result of the team (together with Grigonis), but Lekavičius nevertheless played a good game. You can see that Schiller sees a special role for Lekavičius in the team: reliving the game as he enters the field and trashing opponents’ defense with leaks and ball shots, which he did well on Friday.

Paulius Jankūnas – 7 points
16 min., 4 p. (4/4 pun.), 2 sec. cam., 3 res. transfer, 8 benefits points.

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Although the rivals played an unfavorable five for Jankūnas, only one episode was remembered in which the captain Sergei Karasiov missed on the baseline. In attack, the veteran proved once again that he is still one of the best players in bonus situations: in the third half, Paul caused two cunning fouls. It is true that this duel was broken with a series of double digit utility scores.

Artūras Milaknis – 5 points
19 min., 4 p. (2/3 dvit., 0/1 trit.), 4 us. points.

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Milaknis gathered all his points in advances: once he passed to the left, and after a long break, he also showed brusqueness, when he left his opponent behind. The duel, when the sniper had practically no chance to strike from afar, but it wasn’t a night when Arthur’s main weapon was needed.

Rokas Jokubaitis – 5 points
22 min., 4 p. (1/4 dvit., 0/2 trit., 2/2 baud), 3 atm. cam., 2 res. more., 0 pages, 3 profit points.

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Jokubaitis started the match with uncertainty, and at the same time received a powerful block from Zaicev and finished the match with 1 shot of 6. However, at the end of the match, all the spotlights were diverted towards Roka, when he scored the 100 point with shots free and cheered the entire Kaunas bench. On defense, once the player went too far to help and that is why Eric McCollum was penalized with a triple, but you also have to remember how McCollum himself had trouble driving the ball 20 years ago.

Agustín as Rubitas – 4 balai
14 min., 6 p. (2/5 dvit., 2/4 baud), 3 atm. cam., 4 lost, 1 use. Punctuation.

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Rubit retired in the shadow of Lauvergne in this match. The tall man stood out with a powerful shot late in the first half, but he was also the only Žalgiris player to miss a free kick.