The European basketball season is in full pace already, and it is time for me to teach you more about Lithuanian clubs. Let's start with the Vilniaus Rytas and Kaunas Zalgiris, two biggest and richest teams in the country. It's very rare to be a fan of both teams because they are the arch-rivals in Lithuania. However, I don't like to play by the standards, and I support both the Vilniaus Rytas and Kaunas Zalgiris when they are playing in Europe. After all, any Lithuanian club's victory is a victory for the Lithuanian basketball. Also, I like to see as many Lithuanian players getting a chance to compete at the highest level as possible. Sadly, the Vilniaus Rytas is not looking great for the last 10 years. They are improving, but everything needs to move faster.
The Vilniaus Rytas lost against the poor Frankfurt Skyliners team
If you placed 100 dollars on the Frankfurt Skyliners before the match, you would have walked with 600 after the match. Yes, the Vilniaus Rytas were overwhelming favorites to win the match, mainly because it was played back in Vilnius.
The Rytas started the game well and got an early 10-2 lead. It looked like the Skyliners has no ideas on how to crack Rytas' defense for the first 5 minutes. However, a random big guy from Finland named E. Murphy checked in the game and scored 8 points in the row to get the Skyliners back in the game. After that, both teams went toe to toe for the remaining of the first half. It was a low scoring half with lots of mistakes and blunders. I would love to say that the Rytas looked great, but they did not.
The only player who performed well on the attack was D.J. Seeley. This guy will be the scoring leader of the Rytas all season. I am super happy that he was brought to the team as for the last couple of year, the Rytas had no reliable scorer. However, even Seeley couldn't connect from the three-point line, and the Rytas finished the half with zero 3's made.
As for the Skyliners, they looked awful on the attack as well. They connected from the three-point territory though, and that kept them in the game because when it came to playing inside the paint, the Skyliners were completely dominated by taller and stronger Rytas' big guys.
In the second half, after making their first three, the Rytas got a 5 point lead, and it looked like they were ready to get control of the game. And then, another no-name J. Clark started his magic show and scored 12 points in a row to give the Skyliners 8 point lead after the third quarter. On top of that, the Rytas couldn't find any ways to attack theoretically poor Skyliner's defense. All the leaders of the Rytas were playing selfish and without any ideas. Kairys, Girdziunas, Seeley, Sutton, Harris - all of them tried to be heroes but ended up being losers. I hate to say this, but Dainius Adomaitis (the Vilniaus Rytas coach) was terrible in the third quarter as he let the Skyliners dominate the game without making any changes.
In the fourth quarter, nothing much changed and the Skyliners held their 9 points lead. This was the biggest upset in the Eurocup today, and I hate to admit that the Rytas did not deserve a victory against much weaker opponents from Germany. The European season is only starting, and this loss is not a big deal, but Dainius Adomaitis has to adapt to the team and make some changes if he wants to bring victories to Vilnius. As for now, the Vilniaus Rytas is in the 4th position in their group after 3 rounds. I am pretty sure that the Rytas will eventually climb to the top 3 in their group. The Frankfurt Skyliners started their European campaign with 2 wins in 3 games and made a huge step toward the next stage.
Kaunas Zalgiris comfortably won against the powerful Anadolu Efes team
Last season most of the experts predicted that the Kaunas Zalgiris would finish last in the Euroleague (16 teams compete in the tournament). Instead, the Kaunas Zalgiris went on to earn a spot in the final four and eventually finish in the 3rd position. I cannot even start to explain how much of a big deal it was in Lithuania, a country where basketball is the second religion. Sarunas Jasikevcius, once legendary Lithuanian basketball player and now one of the most promising coaches in Europe (and probably the world), would win the presidential elections if he wanted. Yes, he is that popular. Of course, even for Sarunas Jasikevicius, it will be hard to maintain the level that the Kaunas Zalgiris played last season. However, judging from today, I can see the Kaunas Zalgiris surprising Europe once again.
The Anadolu Efes invested a lot of money during the off-season and made it clear that anything lower than the final four would be a bad result. And it only takes one look at their roster to understand why the club has such high goals. Sadly for the Turks, today they cannot compete against the Kaunas Zalgiris.
The Kaunas Zalgiris started the game with a lot of energy, and the ball was moving perfectly on the attack. New guys Walkup and Wolters showed why they got contracts in the third best European team. On top of that, Brandon Davies started the new season just where he left off the last season when he became one of the most dominant big guys in Europe. I am pretty sure that Davies will sign with an NBA team after this season, so you might want to check him out before everyone else does.
For the first 15 minutes, both teams played well, and the score was equal, but after that, something happened to the Anadolu Efes, and they started failing. The Kaunas Zalgiris took the opportunity and finished the first half with a 13-0 run.
In the second half, the Kaunas Zalgiris kept dominating the game and even increased their lead to 21, mainly by Davies and Westermann's efforts, who combined for 35 out of total 93 Kaunas Zalgiris' points. Of course, the Anadolu Efes did not give up in front of their fans and cut the lead to 7 points late in the fourth quarter thanks to 15 Simon's fourth-quarter points. However, the local team started playing basketball a little too late, and the Kaunas Zalgiris stood their ground and collected a relatively easy victory in Turkey 93-79.
There is no time to celebrate, though, as The Kaunas Zalgiris will play their next game in 2 days against the vice-champions of last years' Euroleague, the Fenerbache Ulker. However, I am pretty confident that the Kaunas Zalgiris can beat the second team from Istanbul in the same week if they keep playing the way the played today.
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