A historic matchup will see either Zalgiris (5-11) or Maccabi (9-7) bounce back to winning ways.
Lorenzo Brown, Maccabi: 'Our success will come from pushing the pace'
Seasons
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 17 of 34
Regular Season
Zalgiris KaunasZAL
7078
Maccabi Playtika Tel AvivMTA
Overview
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Zalgiris will hope that Laurynas Birutis can maintain his strong form after netting 13 of his 16 two-point shots in the last two games and his battle with the equally in-form Josh Nebo – PIRs of 25 and 26 in the last two games – could be vital. Maccabi will lean on Lorenzo Brown to repeat his usual high standards of 14.8 points and 6.8 assists per night and should be welcoming back team captain John DiBartolomeo. Zalgiris will turn backcourt star and former Maccabi player Keenan Evans, who is comfortably his team’s top scorer with an average of 15.8 points.
Kazys Maksvytis, Zalgiris head coach
"Maccabi is a more of an offensive team. They are one of the best in the PIR standings, second in points scored, with many attacking options and a core from last season. I won’t say anything new - we need to try not to get into a scoring race, force them to defend and win the game on defense. They also lead in offensive rebounding, so we need to put big focus on boxing-out as well."
Oded Kattash, Maccabi head coach
"We arrived to Kaunas after a difficult journey, we will try to prepare as best we can - it’s not going to be a simple game. Maybe the intense environment in the arena will help us. Zalgiris are better than what their results show, they lost some tight games against really good teams. We expect an intense and aggressive game."
Lukas Lekavicius, Zalgiris player
"As in every match, we will play against a high-level team. We will have to keep them within a small distance until the end of the match. We will be playing at home, and with the help of the crowd, with a good energy, aggressiveness and good defense we can think about victory. The coach stressed that we lack quality through all 40 minutes. We play well for three periods, but then maybe we make stupid mistakes out of fatigue. We miss shots, we make stupid decisions. I think that’s what we need to improve - quality."
Lorenzo Brown, Maccabi player
"I think our success will come from pushing the pace, stopping their guard play and rebounding. I think defensively we have to be physical and shut down their main scorers."