Lithuania shows that it is a contender for a medal, but lost a close match to the champion Slovenia
This match was win or lose from start to finish. Unfortunately, Lithuania seemed to deflate towards the end after several silly turnovers and momentum-killing calls from the referees, such as an unsportsmanlike foul on Jonas Valanciunas when Luka Doncic apparently embellished contact to mislead the referees. It happened in the final minutes, when the game could have gone either way, but not in Lithuania this time. Lithuania now have to go even further into the meat grinder of their ‘group of death’ and beat France if they want to come back, which I believe they are fully capable of.
Group B of this LT Eurobasket tournament pulled some tough shots for their opponents. Slovenia, which lost today to the defending champion, led by NBA stallion Luka Dončić.
They also have to face medal winners France and a resurgent Germany on their home turf and add a tough Bosnian team along with poor Hungary and you better get ready for a wild ride!
Analysis of key personnel
The core of the Lithuanian team rests on the elite giants of the NBA Jonas Valanciunas and Domantas Sabonis. They’re both great centers, but the problem is they’re BOTH CENTERS! It is risky to have two centers on the floor together because they are generally slower and faster,
a guard-led team like Slovenia knows how to exploit this weakness. In this match, if I was around Kazys Maksvytis shoes, he probably would have taken JV late in the game and just gone with Domas at center, who started to really do the damage until the coach decided to remove him for some unknown reason. The main rule that Lithuanian coaches always ignore is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. He’s a bit faster at home than JV and has always been successful playing him
Mindaugas Kuzminskas, who was the only Lithuanian player to have an unequivocally outstanding game today, scored 20 points. While JV is a tremendous player and can destroy other big man dominated teams (see you soon, France and Gobert), it just wasn’t
best match for him today.
Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Ignas Bradzeikis seemed to be at the center of everything good for the green machine today. Kuzminskas, an elder statesman on the national team at 32 years old, once again showed his versatility and ability to score key baskets when they were
desperately needed, both internally and externally. Bradzeikis, who is the youngster of the team and is coming off an excellent debut performance at the early summer tournament, brought an effort and energy that seemed to work to break down the solid Slovenian defence. Both players
were inexplicably shut out late in the game.
The guard play for Lithuania is stronger than ever with Lukas Lekavicius, Marius Grigonis and young Rokas Jokubaitis. Lekavicius played very well today, while the jitters seemed to get the better of the 21-year-old Jokubaitis. Lukas Lekavicius provided a steady hand
wheel as a point guard and penetrated the dribble very well to break down defenses and make solid plays. Grigonis, who was a team captain over the summer, showed why he can be a top scorer and hit a lot of open threes or knock off floaters. I have high hopes for Rokas Jokubaitis, who will no doubt lead this team one day after gaining some valuable experience. Today was one of those learning moments for him and for him
he didn’t play his best.
The center forwards are extremely talented and athletic European club players Rokas Giedraitis and Arnas Butkevicius. Both are basically role players who have the potential to flare up, they just didn’t really do it today. Giedraitis was decent at times, hitting a few 3-pointers, but Butkevicius coming in for Ignas Bradzeikis late in the game was an unfortunate substitution by the coach. Not that Butkevicius isn’t a good player, he’s a great one. He
I just didn’t have the hot hand today, but Iggy did. I felt the coach should have run with Iggy late.
Let’s take a step back and take a deep breath. To put things into perspective, this was just the first game of group play against the NBA-led defending champions MVP caliber
captain in Luka Dončić. Believe me, if Lithuania had been the top team after this swing of a match, I would have been jumping for joy, but that was not the case. The fact that we even went up against such a good team and practically lasted all fifteen rounds was an incredible feat in itself. However, we can and must use this opening loss to our advantage going forward!
In the first two matches, we coincidentally faced two of the toughest possible opponents in Slovenia and France. Is this a coincidence? Probably. FIBA, on the other hand, has not been known to love the Lithuanians all that much, especially after the 2019 officiating fiasco when Gobert apparently interfered with a JV free throw that was about to be taken, and the refs didn’t called. This would probably give Lithuania a win and a good chance of a medal in this Euro Basket tournament and an automatic spot in the Olympics if they get it right.
Naturally, Lithuanians at home and abroad were not too happy about the injustice, and many took to social media to blast FIBA, which acknowledged the mistake but did nothing about it. Conspiracy theories aside, I think it’s a good thing that we have very tough opening games for Lithuania this year in Group B. The “fire under the proverbial bum” is now lit and we have to focus hard to get the next one!
I much prefer this loss to have come in the first game. JV will now prepare for one of his patented comeback performances, which will be even sweeter, to perhaps pay back Gobert and France a little bit for what happened in 2019. Whatever narrative motivates
that’s what the coach needs to emphasize in the locker room. JV is a true professional and proud competitor of our team and I think he will be really ready for the second game!
Losing serves the vital function of focusing the team and giving it a complete sense of urgency. I predict Lithuania will get the next one and every other one after that… this is definitely a team worthy of a medal podium!
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