Zalgiris’ 2021/22 season was the worst since Lithuania gained independence in 1990. They did win the Lithuanian Cup, but for the first time ever failed to qualify for the league playoff finals and finished in third place. In addition, the former empire fell to the last place in the Euroleague also in cleaning the balance against the Russian teams, when it suffers 20 losses and wins only eight games.
In the last decade, Zalgiris moved in mediocrity, when it managed to reach the Final Four of the Euroleague only twice since 1999, when it won the factory. In 2017/18 the renewed peak came, when Sharas marched her from the position of coach to the surprising third place in the Euroleague and a season later again took her to the top eight of Europe after a tremendous comeback at the end of the regular season.
After he left during the corona, there was a feeling of the end of an era. The Lithuanians from the capital encountered financial difficulties following the epidemic and the already low budget, decreased even more. The era did end at the end of the previous season, when the seal was the retirement of Paulius Yankons, one of the legends of the club, who became the sporting director of the club.
Zalgiris’ financial difficulties still remain, but the trend of recovery has begun. Kazis Maxvitis was appointed the new coach after two foreign coaches who failed to integrate into the team and lead it up (the Austrian Martin Schiller and the Slovenian Jora Zdovec). In addition, Ignas Brazdeikis arrived from the NBA, who showed abilities during the last European Championship as a five player. Its base continued to be Lithuanian (only four foreign players) and it has only one player who crosses the age of 31 – the veteran Mentes Kalneitis who celebrated 36 last September.
Another key player who holds the signature Lithuanian cup is Keenan Evans, who served as the senior coordinator for Yanis Spropoulos and Avi Evan last season at Maccabi Tel Aviv and now serves as the starting coordinator for the Lithuanians. His role in the attacking game is much clearer and he is the one who drives the attacks, but it is doubtful whether he will be able to fill the gap left by Marius Grigonis and Vasilija Micic in the position.
Not only these two came to strengthen the Lithuanian empire, which changed half of its staff including names like Joffrey Lovran, Nils Giphy, Yannis Strelniks and Josh Niebo. Lithuanian national team player Arenas Butkievičius joined along with the tall Orinas Birotis, Quarius Hayes and Ronalds Smiths. The other player who arrived is 22-year-old Dovidas Giatridis, who was part of the prestigious “Basketball Without Borders” camp held in Israel in 2017 and went through the youth teams of Lithuania.
As mentioned, the big star is Brazdeikis, who came from Orlando Magic. The 23-year-old talent was unable to integrate into the NBA and is coming to play for the first time in the country where he was born. His unique body dimensions (100 kg x 2.01 m) give him the peace of mind to play in the number three position and take a player to the basket with his back in the post, pass him one on one using strength and speed or even throw for a three. The shot from outside the arc is his Achilles heel, but if he has a good day like he had against Spain at EuroBasket, he becomes a real threat on the court.
Maccabi Tel Aviv should not have a hard time against the Lithuanian defense. The color is relatively broken from the moment you take the chin out in a pick and roll and from the way they look so far, the yellows will have a lot of fun in the color. On the other side, the threats of the Lithuanians can come from anywhere on the court, depending on the center of the opponent – against Real Madrid in the preparatory game of the Costa del Sol tournament they shot 16/37 from outside the arc and against Naptons in the first round of the local league they threw only 13 shots for three by holding the cup
Real has Eddie Tavares, about his 2.21 centimeters so many words have been said and written that it is unnecessary to explain why it is scary to enter the paint and encounter him and his terrible hands. Her opponent in the league was shorter, with a center at only 2.11 in height named Willie Austin, who did not exactly pose a great threat to Zalgiris who was able to deal with him in the attack.
At Ketch, the tallest player is Jake Cohen with a height of 2.10. The top two centers in the rotation, Alex Poithers and ex Josh Niebo, are 2.06. Therefore, you can see the Lithuanians play much more into the paint and try to perform penetration and extraction drills if necessary, or maybe they will decide to stick with the shooting drills in light of the Israelis’ lack of a defensively oriented forward.
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s game will depend first of all on how it guards. Maxvitis’s exercises, which is his first role in the EuroLeague, are more predictable and comfortable to guard, when the advantage he manages to produce is in pick and roll moves with good blocks that free Evans or Lukas Lakvičius (who played great for the Lithuanian national team) to find the free player. What she is also good at is the surprise from the offensive rebound – they like to throw the ball when it reaches a free player just when the defense is not enough to prepare for it.
The three-point drills of the Lithuanians are very dangerous, especially if the shooting drills work well. In addition to Lakvičius (almost 50% in the Lithuanian league last season), Karolis Lokosunas, Tyler Kavanagh, Butkiavičius and Edgars Ulanovs are also big threats from beyond the arc and are considered good shooters who can block and go outside. If the defense does manage to reach them, Smiths and Hayes will roll quickly into the paint and will be able to put easy points in it over the outstretched hands of the yellows. Ketch will have to figure out what he prefers to bet on – fight with the tall ones in the paint and leave the arch exposed or switch on every block (which his team is capable of doing) and prevent the Lithuanians from getting hot.
On the other side, as mentioned, the defense broke. As we saw in EuroBasket, the Lithuanians are not exactly considered great guards, when the Maccabi Tel Aviv players should also have a physical and athletic advantage over the opponent’s rotation players. They should be a comfortable opponent, especially in the first game against the home crowd and with a full squad in the hands of Eliyahu, when neither Evans nor Maksivitis have good memories of their last visit there – the center back lost with the Yellows to Bnei Herzliya in the playoff semi-finals, the coach lost to Nes Ziona City in the Eurocup semi-finals in 2021 with Russian Pharma. Even the Lithuanians themselves have not won in the hall since 2019.
Lorenzo Brown’s impact on the game will be particularly critical. In his debut game he was great with a double double after only two practices with the team. It instills a calmness and stability on the floor that were not present in the other practice games. The Zalgiris have a variety of ways to stop Ketch’s offense, but if Brown plays well it will be very difficult for them to deal with his post-block basketball IQ.
The Lithuanians have two types of fives where it is dangerous – one with Smiths in position number 4 and one with three scorers together with a center and a center in the paint. The experiment of Poithers and Nivo together on the field looks good against the tall pair of Hapoel Holon, who more simulate the middle between the two fives of Zalgiris, when Jarel Martin can also contribute in a good way against this quality of players. Even against a team of shooters, you have to know how to react, but the agility of the Lithuanian guards, or even the physicality of Evans in penetrating the basket against the softness of the yellow forwards, can be a significant factor against Maccabi’s low formations in which Bonzi Colson plays in the number 4 position.
On paper, the advantage of the Lithuanians is in the power forward position. Maxvitis’ group will try to take advantage of this to attack the 3-4 positions of the yellows and we will probably see a lot of isolation exercises by Brezdeikis or one of the center backs in front of the center because he knows that the second tall of Ketch will have a problem getting help, which will leave a player free on the three-point arc.
This is a game that both teams want to come out of with a win and feel they can do it. The Lithuanians will try to take advantage of the Israeli team’s drop in tension, which comes in the second quarter of one of the halves, to open a gap that they can maintain until the final buzzer. The last time it won in the opening round, the team from Northern Europe won three more games in a row on the way to a 0:4 record and first place in the table, which ended with a 17:17 record at the end. Last year, after losing in the opening round, she lost nine more games in a row en route to a 10:0 record and a disappointing season. Maybe this game won’t dictate the season of the Yellows, but it absolutely could dictate the season of the visitor.