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The Kaunas team “Žalgiris” suffered the first failure in the Euroleague, when they landed 82:94 on the Valencia “Valencia” basketball players. The Krepsinis.net portal offers the most interesting aspects of the duel.
Triples. The Žalgiris people started the game in an impressive way, when they hit the first 4 triples, and during the first half they shot up to 7 of 9. Up to 21 of 27 points were scored with shots from the perimeter. Those first 10 minutes suggested that “Žalgiris” could make the longest shots this season, which is still 13 shots against Chimki in the Moscow region. Two triples were added in the second quarter, and after the break, this Žalgiris weapon was completely blocked: there were no triples in a quarter and a half, and the silence was broken by shots from Lukas Lekavičius and Artūras Milaknis, reducing the deficit. from 16 to 10 points. “Žalgiris” finished the match with 39.3 percent. (11/28) and Valencia surpassed its rivals both in the number of three-point shots (14/32) and in the percentage of hits, which was 43.8 percent.
During the first two halves, Žalgiris developed many good shooting situations, as the defenders used aggressive use of Valencia. Stepouto With trap (“Trap”) defended with his aggressive actions when he managed to cut into the penalty area and then distribute the ball to finally reach a free player. Valencia was confident in their ability to counterattack, and the wings were the focus of most of Valencia’s attacks.
“We need more communication in defense. Talk, talk,” shouted the boss during the second half, coach Jaume Ponsarnau.
Nikola Kaliničius factor. In last week’s article on whether “Žalgiris” needed a new slight lead, we singled out this Serb from Valencia as the first threatening test for the chain of Kaunas’s “third problem”, which consists of attacking defenders. The Valencian team sensed this weak point perfectly and wisely used N. Kaliničius, against whom “Žalgiris” had prepared a double defense. It is true that he was not always smart when help came leaving well beaten players like Vanja Marinkovičius or Klemen Prepeličius on 3s, and N. Kaliničius perfectly distributed passes, 3 of which were effective and none were called “hockey” when after the Serbian transfer, the player made another transfer and then points were earned. The Kaliničius factor was important on both sides of the square, and with him on the floor, Valencia scored 15 more points than he missed, which is the second indicator, only surpassed by Louis Labeyrie, plus 16.
It is known that N. Kaliničius was not the most important blacksmith in Valencia’s victory, but his figure and the introduction of the ball while playing backwards was very important in the first half, when the guests did not leave the opponents too far away. Overall, the forward scored 14 points in 25 minutes and scored 17 utility points.
What happened after the break? During the big break, Marius Grigonis said that you don’t have to rely on a three-point hit and that shouldn’t be the main thing, everything has to be built on defense. As he said, it happened: in the second half, as we already mentioned, “Žalgiris” scored only 2 triples and did it only when the winner of the match was already practically clear. Žalgiris’ defensive home collapsed in the third quarter, when opponents scored 30 points. Given that so far Žalgiris have allowed their opponents to score 69.8 points, these are too high numbers. The worst thing is that “Žalgiris” came to a complete stop and scored only 12 points. Valencia appeared to have improved their communication after the break and played even more aggressively when they managed to catch Žalgiris before the ball reached a free player. Again, the picture was similar to what we saw during the friendly tournament, when the attack against Milan’s AX Armani slipped and Žalgiris seems to have no plan B or C.
Martin Schiller cannot be said not to have tried: He immediately called a meeting after missing the start of the third quarter at 4:12. When it did not help, there were 2 minutes left to play, he again asked for a minute of rest and the deficit was already 9 points. It’s worth noting that after a minute of rest, Valencia played the same combination perfectly, using the back wall and scoring points with impressive picks, and Derrick Williams’ very angry putting should be in the top ten of most episodes. beautiful.
Valencia started to play more one-on-one in attack and the players of this team are individually stronger than the people of Žalgiris, so not only A. Milaknis was left behind, but also Rokas Jokubaitis, who made a mistake and was escaped the barriers when K. Prepeličius scored two 3-pointers. .
“The opponents outmaneuver us in a one-on-one game. We have to work better on individual defense,” M. Schiller taught the students during the minute break.
Number of launches. Nigel Hayes set something of a career record in the Euroleague: he made up to 15 shots, of which he reached the goal in year 14 in which he won a duel with Chimki. It should be noted that the heavy edge made as many pitches in just 21 minutes. Yes, several shots were from good positions, and in the second half, Hayes completed two attacks in a row with shots forced by a siren that announced the time of the attack and hit both halves. When N. Hayes threw 15 pitches, M. Grigonis threw the basket only 5 times, Augustine Rubitas, who looked great, hit 6 (hit all), Rokas Jokubaitis, 3 and Lukas Lekavičius, only 2 times (both noticed) . The latter managed to add 9 points in 17 minutes, make 5 assists and add 21 utility points, which is the best indicator of the team. Hayes has thrown 48 pitches after 5 rounds (19 – 39.5 percent), which is the most on the team.
“X factors”. Louis Labeyrie turned into a nasty surprise last season when he hit 4 3-of-5s. This time, his two long shots flew by, but he did another very useful job: scoring 12 points and scoring 16 utility points. In the previous three games, the Frenchman scored 16 points together. The forward’s very hard energy from the hard edge and the 6 points in the first half allowed Valencia not to let the rival go too far. Labeyrie also did well on defense and made a better impression than star Williams, who scored 6 points and 8 efficiency points in 14 minutes.
However, the main “X Factor” became Vanja Marinkovičius, who scored 16 points and scored 11 points in 19 minutes. The Serbian returned only after the injury in the last round and played against Barcelona in just 6 minutes, and in Kaunas he appeared immediately in the first fifth and the confidence of J.Ponsarnau was justified 100% by hitting 4 triples of 8 Martin Hermannsson, who came from the ALBA team in Berlin, where he was one of the leaders, but in Valencia he does not adapt and this lack of appearance on the floor does not promise anything good for Iceland.
conclusion. In the 18th minute, when Žalgiris had a 10-point lead, it seemed like something similar to what we had seen against Istanbul’s Anadolu Efes could happen, but Valencia are a completely different beast at this stage of the season. First of all, the Spanish team is much better physically prepared and trained more intelligently when the depth of the line-up and the different options in attack are exploited. In 9 days, when there were no games, Valencia knew how to prepare perfectly for the duel and study the defense of the Žalgiris team, which has become a hickey for everyone. Anadolu seemed to have no solutions to this defensive scheme and no energy in the attack, and Valencia knew how to withstand the wave of Žalgiris’ attack and not raise arms early, when the hosts of the field hit them from afar. The free play “Žalgiris” and the three-point opportunity look really attractive and can bring a lot of success in singles matches, but this time the residents of Kaunas have forgotten their true roots of four wins: defense. Spending 94 points at home is an inexcusable indicator, because “Žalgiris” is not as talented at throwing as this accepted opponent. Given that Valencia has scored just 74 points so far, allowing the team to score more than a quarter points higher is a luxury.
Next week, Žalgiris would have a good chance of getting back on the winning track if the USEL members of Vilerban have already overcome the coronavirus and have at least 8 healthy players. The French team has canceled the local league match for the weekend, so if they hit the floor on Friday, there will be up to 19 days without practice. French media say it will be definitely clear on Monday or Tuesday whether the match will take place.
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