Žalgiris has felt a shortage of centimeters: if we fail alone, we have to

If the forces in France were not completely equal, and “Žalgiris” used other arguments to cut the ASVEL that failed to recover after the coronavirus shortage, then on Friday in Kaunas the highest price had to be paid.

Although it was well received, Real slipped into the gap left by the people of Žalgiris with the victory in their pocket – 93:90.

“It’s fun to play when the ball is moving, when everyone scores points. With a team like this, we competed in attack on par. But somewhere we leave a defense. It is as if we were talking about how we are going to defend ourselves, but the game is approaching and that mechanism gets stuck. There is still work to do. Although I am not saying that everything is desperate, we defend well in the stages, only that they are too short ”, the defender of the hosts Artūras Milaknis reviewed the facts.

The real was too loose from a distance, too easy to break. Our defense was not adequate. At the same time, we improved it, but together we lost too many points, ”said striker Augustine Rubit.

In the third quarter, Kaunas still led by 11 points, but the lead disappeared due to queues at the entrances to Žalgiris Arena after the quarantine was announced.

“There was a lack of cool blood: we started to run somewhere, we lost some balls, we made an attack. Real just needed it, misadjustment situations began to explode, the ball began to move. And we didn’t do it anymore. on time what we had polished a year ago There are things to fix and we will fix them.

There is nothing to cry and hang your head. We have seen that we can defend ourselves with an attack and with those teams that have that potential. However, a team like ours must better stop its competitors ”, A. Milaknis is convinced.

The team’s helmsman, Martin Schiller, pointed to another reason after the game, which prevented him from consolidating his advantage: the balls recovered by the opponents under the “Žalgiris” basket.

And the reason for this was W. Tavares. The 220 cm tall “center” caught 6 rebounds (12 total) in attack alone.

Similarly, a week ago, only 2 cm lower M. Fallas used his position, bouncing 7 balls under Kaunas’ basket.

And in both cases, most of those balls were doubled in the opponent’s point count.

“We shouldn’t have allowed Tavares to bounce so many balls in attack, so easy to get into the basket, especially at the end of the game. It is not allowed to score points in this way in general ”, A. Rubitas hit the chest.

Delphi When asked if Kaunas had any antidotes to rivals like Fall and Tavares, the 31-year-old emphasized that he would not want to draw any conclusions before the match with ASVEL and Real.

“Obviously, they are both very tall. We don’t have those giants, so we have to make up the centimeters with fighting spirit. We will meet these guys again and we will have to be prepared to match them. By all means possible, if we alone cannot avoid to get the ball back, we must do it as a team. They must be preceded by five lengths. Obviously that was not the case tonight, so we have to stretch, “said the 203cm tall basketball player.

In fact, Žalgiris will not have to wait for the second round of the regular season for A. Rubit’s words to be verified. The matches with Panathinaikos of Athens and Baskonia of Vitoria and the giants of these clubs await next month: Georg Papagiannis and 220cm tall Youssoupha Fall, who are one centimeter taller, respectively.

It is true that the Lithuanian champions have already been able to neutralize a competitor of the same height category this Euroleague season. In mid-October, in a match with Sambulo’s Anadolu Efes, the 221 cm tall Tibor Pleiss was satisfied with 2 rebounds.

Next Thursday, the people of Žalgiris will continue their performance in the Euroleague as guests at Maccabi in Telcivo (Israel), Real will visit Crvena Zvezda in Belgrade (Serbia).