2024-07-03 09:37:58
The Lithuanian men’s basketball team defeated the Mexicans (0/1) 96:84 in the first match of the Olympic qualifying group A thanks to a powerful third quarter.
The students of K. Maksvytis lost 0:9 in the first two minutes of the match, then the Lithuanians lost 11:2, during the second half our team also organized several periods (7:0 and later in the second half M.Grigonis scored 8 points in a row) in a row , but in the end the Lithuanians could not get ahead before the long one.
However, in the third quarter, our team decided not to joke anymore. Within 5.5 minutes of the game, the Lithuanian national team won the section by as much as 25:6 and began to crush the opponents (74:50). However, the Lithuanians ultimately did not keep their advantage and celebrated the victory with a difference of 12 points.
“We didn’t play the best basketball, but we have to win. This is such a tournament. Nothing too good, nothing too bad. That’s basketball, we had 4-5 training sessions, all coming from different systems. It was necessary not to get lost and we did that. Mexico is not a strong team, we didn’t play very well either,” said M. Grigonis.
“All I can say is that we played well for only one half. We have a lot of room to stretch. We did a lot of bad things today that we have to improve by tomorrow.
Elementary miscommunication in defense. We are Lithuanians and we all speak Lithuanian, but (Joshua) Ibarra looked like a Euroleague center today, who killed us in short-rolls (short landings behind the barriers – ed.)”, said M. Kuzminskas.
“Perhaps there was some tension, the first match… there is a lot of miscommunication. It was also in a friendly match. Not communicating is an unpleasant and disturbing trend. It will be necessary to review the match and solve the problems”, added Arnas Butkevičius.
Lithuanian basketball players dominated only in the third quarter (34:17), and won the first two (29:26 and 20:18) with a minimal margin, but lost the fourth quarter with a double-digit margin (13:23).
According to the captain of the Lithuanian men’s basketball team, the team needs to solve its problems.
“Today, the energy was not what it should be in an official match when playing for the national team. Details, lack of communication… of course, you can look for excuses, maybe we are not used to it and the like, but we have to get things done, because there is no time”, M. Kuzminskas taught.
“We played in waves. We can’t start the game like that. This is not our game and it does not bring us any good emotions. After that, we came back in the match, but in the first half of the match we made a lot of mistakes, there was a lot of misunderstanding, we didn’t find our game until the end. In the second half, we came out completely differently, with a different aggression, we changed the defense system”, explained A. Butkevičius.
Why did our people not manage to play the end of the match, when the Lithuanians squandered a very solid advantage?
“You know, those so-called smaller basketball countries go against us, they fight, they want to prove themselves and they play with additional motivation. You always have to impose your game against them, break the match and go all the way. When you start pulling, then there are matches that probably neither we nor the fans liked,” said M. Kuzminskas.
When asked about whether the burden was lifted after the first victorious match, M. Kuzminskas continued to think about the reasons for the poor game.
“Let’s be honest, we all hope we want to be first. Maybe it means that we are thinking too much about the future, even though the coaches are focusing on the next match”, concluded M. Kuzminskas.
We remind you that the Lithuanian men’s basketball team will play a match against Ivory Coast on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday (0:30 a.m.) in Lithuanian time.
2024-07-03 09:37:58