“Strange match, but in the end a very important victory was won by “Zalgiris” Kaunas against “Baskonia” of Vitoria.
The first half was very interesting, when “Žalgiris” scored only 4 points in the first five minutes. Sylvain Francisco asked to be substituted after the first minute due to a bloody hand, and with that the plan prepared by the coaches probably collapsed. Already at the end of the first quarter, Tomas Masiulis‘ team had a deficit of 12 points, but the home team managed to close the quarter with Igno Brazdeikis and Maodos Lo’s three-pointers.
“Zalgiris” started the second half poorly as well, and T. Masiulis had to burn the second minute break, because nobody in the attack, except for S. Francisco, could do anything. It was difficult to succeed in the defense as well, where the Žalgiris players exchanged defenders.
In the first half of the match, “Žalgiris” missed 42 points, S.Francisco scored 21 of the team’s 37 utility points, and the team made only 2 free throws out of 7. The Kaunas team stayed in the game thanks to 7 out of 12 long shots. Only 1 offensive rebound until the long break, when it was 7 in the second half of the match, is striking. difference
The beginning of the third quarter was also quite difficult, when S.Francisco received more attention from the defense, and with that, the attack of “Žalgiris” also seemed sticky. Everything changed when Dustin Sleva stepped onto the field and scored a three-pointer, in the next attack he made an assist to Đžuolus Tubelis, who also hit a three-pointer, and Edgars Ulanovs added another two-pointer. This ignited the “Zalgiris” arena.
The beginning of the fourth quarter was impressive, when S.Francisco did what he wanted. Of course, it all started with the defense, as Baskonia could hardly do anything against the received contact, and Žalgiris just started to dominate.
In the decisive quarter, T. Masiulis’ team won even 28:13. The differences between the first and the last half are drastic, it’s amazing that it all ended like this. Of course, “Žalgiris” hit 14 three-pointers out of 23. This is a rare efficiency.
Although the victorious advantage seems huge, the Kaunas had to work hard and adapt to Baskonia’s game in order to forge such a victory.”
