Žalgiris’ sharpest Danish rake tooth and Messina’s tactical “robbery”

“Žalgiris” was close to the finish line on Friday with the strongest rivals in the Euroleague. But Olympia had an irresistible trump card.

Of course, Kyle Hines deserves a special mention for fencing his penalty area with stop bars in the deciding minutes.

However, Sh. Shields on Nemunas Island was a veritable men’s orchestra.

The 26-year-old defender, who can also play in the position of a light-edge striker, was the first to rush to fill in the gaps on his side of the field, provoking the errors of Žalgiris, and once fired the ball by jumping into the bow. And he ran into a quick attack, shot 3-pointers, successfully “centered”, tore through the hosts defense with strides, found uncovered teammates.

He was the one who fouled Thomas Walkup 20 seconds before playing. to the final siren and took the most important free throws in cold blood.

In the record, it all turned into 23 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 27 utility points.

Although the total contribution of a Danish basketball player to the victory in Kaunas is difficult to measure with statistics.

Even often in direct microduel with Sh. M. Grigonis, who joined Shieldsu, recognized the opponent’s advantage.

“In the second game, he throws everything in my face. Very good player and his team won. This means that it is better for today,” said Žalgiris, who scored 17 points.

After two seasons in the ranks of Vitoria Baskonia (Spain) Sh. Shields moved to Milan last summer.

The transfer was announced the same night the Basques suddenly became champions of Spain.

Basketball fans in Italy could see why team strategist Ettore Messina, who was in charge of the Olympia team, was in such a hurry.

In this Euroleague season, Sh. Shields ranks seventh in terms of accuracy when attacking from distance (47 percent) and in terms of performance (13.6-point average) and utility (15.5 points) in the top ten.

“It just came to our knowledge then. He is one of the best players on our team. Shavon is versatile: he defends well, he attacks well, he makes the right decisions. And today was a very important part of our victory. We are all very happy with him. “. Delphi he asked about the student, Messina said.

It is true that the Italian basketball authority also tried to console Grigonis, whom he called a “great player”.

“It just came to our knowledge then. These great players can only try to make life a little more difficult, but it won’t stop them. They are too skilled basketball players. One can only try to limit the number of their throws, avoid receiving the ball, entrusting their care to taller and physically stronger guys. I think we did quite well today, we defended well on the weak side, we came out well to the rescue, “commented E. Messina.

Olimpia really played one of the best defensive games of the season on Friday.

Although at the same time they were the most ineffective for the people of Milan, and this is the merit of “Žalgiris”.

“We won a very good team. I think” Žalgiris “is one of the best-trained teams in this league, in terms of organization of the game, effort. The quality of the defense of Žalgiris is impressive, they put pressure on the opponents during the 40 minutes The game is not easy to play with.

We didn’t have our starting five players (Malcolm Delaney – Delphi), but Michael Roll worked fantastic both on defense and offense. And our defense was up to the required level in the playoffs. Which have basically already started. I am very happy with this victory and I hope that we will finish the job in the next six rounds, ”said the Olimpia helmsman.

And here’s how you forget that just two days ago, the Italian grandparents played different matches at home day and night with the “Fenerbahche” from Istanbul, which became an attacking festival and ended with a guest victory by 100: 92.

It is true that Messina still forgot, at least that is how she joked when she was interviewed on television immediately after the match.

At the press conference, the 61-year-old specialist’s memory improved when asked if the much lower performance could be due to fatigue after the first “double” game of the week.

“I think it was a bit influenced by the thought in the minds of the players that we had lost at home before. This created tension, nervousness. And anyway, there are strange things in the Euroleague.

We have seen Istanbul’s Anadolu Efes crush Moscow’s CSKA by 30 points, although they lost even more painfully three months ago. There are clicks for everyone.

Anyway, today’s game was completely different from ours with Fenerbahche, who played high-level basketball in attack. These matches are impossible to compare and the difference does not lie in the quality of the match itself. The fact that we scored fewer points or beat Žalgiris by a small difference does not mean that we played badly, ”emphasized the Italian.

His pupils also won the first round match in Italy last November (98:92).

And the discussion between E. Messina and Martin Schiller behind the scenes at the Mediolanum Forum arena, during which the “professor” discussed the subtleties of the game’s tactics with a much younger competitor, was not discussed other than the result itself.

Now E. Messina claims that he himself “borrowed” this from the tactical arsenal of coach “Žalgiris”.

“He is a very intelligent person, a great specialist. In fact, I stole some details of what Žalgiris is doing and adapted it for my team. He’s doing quite well. It is not easy to come to a foreign country where people have a different mentality. But it gets along well. Despite the fact that Patricio Garino, who was supposed to be an important player in this team, was lost before the season, ”said an experienced strategist, whom M. Schiller called the ideal of his youth after the game.

The “Žalgiris” played on Friday without the injured Artūras Milaknis and P. Garinas, the Milan visitors missed the injured M. Delaney and former Žalgiris resident Zach LeDay, and Andrea Cinciarini did not register.

Throughout history, teams have met 17 times in official competitions, Kaunas has won 9 duels.

Next week, Žalgiris will travel to Turkey and fight Anadolu Efes, and the Milanese will visit the CSKA fortress.