By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
On November 5, Zalgiris Kaunas faced ALBA Berlin at home in Round 8 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season after losing in every single of the seven games it had played until then. There were reasonable and rather justified hopes among fans of the Lithuanian champs that this skid would finally reach its end since their team was playing at home and the opponent, with a 2–5 record, wasn’t exactly a force to be feared. At least not as much as others.
ALBA won and did it without much fuss. A few minutes after the game, Zalgiris coach Jure Zdovc was receiving a bombardment of questions and answering them with a stoic demeanor, despite his visible disappointment and frustration. He was trying to explain what was wrong after a hopeless performance by the Kaunas side.
“I believe in this team,” a troubled Zdovc said. “I will work hard and I see some good things. We must keep going, there’s no other way.”
After replacing Martin Schiller two games into the EuroLeague regular season, Zdovc had an uphill and challenging personal battle as a new coach on a team that was missing an essential player while undergoing significant roster changes. Emmanuel Mudiay, who was brought to lead the offense, was out and Tal Webster had just arrived in his place. Zoran Dragic came in to provide experience and potentially a different dimension to the team’s backcourt vanguard.
In the meantime, Joffrey Lauvergne – Zalgiris’ second-leading scorer and top rebounder in 2020-21 – had been sidelined since Round 2. It was an absence that hurt extra during this small renovation period since the French big man’s quality and experience could also act as grease that would smoothen this transition.
“We will insist. We will fight. There’s no other option. We will find the way to compete with every team,” said Zdovc.
When numerous Zalgiris fans met player representatives outside the arena after a domestic loss at home to rival Rytas Vilnius, they didn’t boo them and they didn’t hurl insults at them. They just showered them with love and expressed their unwavering support.
Yes, yes. “Fans don’t play basketball”. But this is a psychological game too and Zalgiris was a team that seemed completely devoid of confidence at that point, a squad that looked like it had accepted its losing fate. It didn’t just need an extra system on offense or a different defensive strategy but also a major morale boost, which is exactly what those fans gave them.
Something promising
The next EuroLeague game for Zalgiris at Real Madrid did not result in an elusive first win (that would’ve been something akin to a miracle) but the team showed significant improvement in comparison with its previous contests and was far more competitive than what the final 13-point margin implied. Something good was being cooked.
Less than a week afterward, all this work and effort that Zdovc was talking about following every defeat finally paid off. Zalgiris’ misfortunes came to an end with a 76-69 victory over Panathinaikos Athens at home; a result mainly of an overall powerful defensive output. Zdovc had pointed at toughness and hustle time and again as the keys to winning while the team was building its offensive chemistry and he saw both of them against the Greens.
“We rotated a lot of players,” Zdovc said. He kept everyone fresh by using 11 of his guys and none for more than 28:19 minutes, helping them to bring out everything they had in the energy department. “It was easy for me tonight because each player that stepped on the court gave something.”
Zalgirio Arena heating up
If the first win was a checkmark on a Zalgiris must-do list, then the next would be “continuity.” Easier said than done when the next opponent is a EuroLeague powerhouse, a team built to win the title.
In a way, Fenerbahce Beko approached the game against Zalgiris in a similar manner to how Zalgiris saw the matches against ALBA and then Panathinaikos: An ideal opportunity to jumpstart its engine.
“We are looking forward to this game,” Fenerbahce coach Sasha Djordjevic had said. His team was coming off two straight losses to AX Armani Exchange Milan (not just a loss, a blowout) and FC Bayern Munich. “We have to get better in many small details. We have to be able to do what we want, be organized, make fewer mistakes in shooting and defense, and fight together as always.”
“We see this game as one of the most important games of the season.”
Defense alone wouldn’t cut it against Fenerbahce like it did versus Panathinaikos. Zalgiris needed an extra flair, a touch of spice in its recipe to show that the win over the Greens wasn’t just a fluke. They found it on offense.
Before facing Fenerbahce, Zalgiris players averaged a mere 69.3 points per game. They registered 86 points that night in their top-scoring performance this season while keeping their opponents at 75 to win their second consecutive game.
It was just the second time they scored above 80 this season. Zalgiris had done it also against Real Madrid with 82 points but the pace in that game was much higher.
“We played like a team on offense and defense,” Zdovc said. “The players talked to each other, supported each other.”
What was also a sight for sore eyes for Zdovc and his coaching staff was the season-high 23 assists that his guys produced, especially in comparison to their 10 turnovers. Veteran Mantas Kalnietis had 11 of those dimes.
“He was amazing,” Zdovc said. “He was one of the first players who really tried to support my philosophy. A leader of the team with Paulius Jankunas out.”
Some three-pointers in key moments didn’t hurt either. Unless you were Fener. “As soon as we got closer to them, they got some big shots,” Djordjevic said after the game.
The Ulanovas factor
“Is that you Edgaras?” You would’ve thought that Edgaras Ulanovas would immediately demonstrate how he found himself right at home in his return to Kaunas after spending a year with Fenerbahce. That he would be the valuable Jack Of All Trades he was in his previous Zalgiris stint.
Not really.
Perhaps no other Zalgiris player struggled as much as Ulanovas during that 0-9 start: 3.3 points and bad shooting overall for an abysmal 2.1 PIR in 22.31 minutes. Was he a doppelganger of the original one?
Ulanovas, the real one, showed up against Panathinaikos with 11 points, 6 rebounds, a massive defensive impact and a team-high 23 PIR overall. The Lithuanian forward carried this newfound flame against Fenerbahce when he led his team in scoring with 18 points on 3-of-4 three-point shooting in what we like to call a “revenge game.”
Not in their house
After a 96-73 away loss to Sarunas Jasikevicius’s FC Barcelona, Zalgiris returned to Kaunas for another “must-win” affair, this time vs. Baskonia. Both teams were in similar situations: They had both undergone coaching changes (though Neven Spahija replaced Dusko Ivanovic much later, after Round 9), performed below expectations and were falling way behind in the race for the playoffs.
It was imperative for Zalgiris to keep its home impregnable and to retain some sort of momentum. The opponent proved to be a tough nut to crack and showed it by coming back from an 11-point deficit to tie the game at 63-63 with 2:28 to play.
Zalgiris was looking for someone to step up big time and, lo and behold, it was the Lukas Lekavicius show. He dropped 8 straight points in the last 2 minutes to keep his team safe and sound with its third win in four games.
He also had 9 assists, which was like the icing on the cake after such a strong crunch-time showing.
A 20-year-old baptized in fire
Lukas Lekavicius, Mantas Kalnietis and Edgaras Ulanovas have risen to the occasion but that’s what’s expected of them, this is what they are there for. But there was also a young guy who delivered under pressure while his team was starving for results. After being promoted to the starting five, young center Marek Blazevic made the most of his 14.9 minutes in these three wins with 8.6 points (on 8-of-14 shooting) and 3 rebounds.
Don’t you dare try to Hack-a-Blazevic, by the way. He’s 21-of-25 from the line this season and was 10-of-10 over the three wins.
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball