By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia kickstarted the season with an 87-79 victory in Kaunas against last season’s Final Four competitors Zalgiris.
Jayson Granger (15 p.) was absolutely phenomenal from the three-point line, pushing Baskonia forward with 5 out of 7 of his shots from afar, followed by Shavon Shields (14 p.). Tornike Shengelia (12 p.) also played a key role in the win, dominating the floor in Antanas Kavaliauskas’ absence from Zalgiris‘ roster.
On the other side of the court, Nate Wolters scored a new career-high of 19 points (his previous one being 15 in a Crvena Zvezda game vs. Zalgiris), though his contribution wasn’t enough to turn the tables in the end.
The Spanish team used a strong second half to secure a safe lead against their hosts and managed to hold back Zalgiris’ outbreak in the final two minutes of the game (paced by Wolters). The game’s fate was sealed with a pair of free throws by Marcelinho Huertas in the final 20 seconds.
It was probably most discussed game of the week, after Pedro Martinez’s comments about Baskonia’s practice being recorded by the hosts, a misunderstanding that was later disputed by EuroLeague. The small incident that was soon resolved didn’t affect the game’s party atmosphere in Zalgirio Arena at all.
Coach Martinez was asked about it in the post-game press conference, where he explained the situation:
“I don’t know what was the problem, after the practice, we noticed that they were taking a picture. I suppose it was the tv broadcaster. You can imagine our feeling at that moment when someone was doing something like this. I think it’s normal that we’d get angry after this situation since we had an hour for a private practice.”