Maodo Lo and Deividas Syrvidis stepped up and made the difference at Palau Blaugrana
New go-to guys help Zalgiris bounce back in Barcelona
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 6 of 38
Regular Season
FC BarcelonaBAR
7388
Zalgiris KaunasZAL
Overview
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There was plenty of good news for Zalgiris Kaunas in Round 6. First and foremost, the Lithuanian giants registered a 73-88 road win over FC Barcelona to snap a two-game losing streak. Tomas Masiulis was able to celebrate his first victory as head coach at Palau Blaugrana, after registering many victories with Barca as Sarunas Jasikevicius's assistant from 2020 to 2023. Even better, Zalgiris saw some new players step up to lead the team to this win, making the team even more unpredictable on offense.
"We lost the last two games and had a little bit of a rough stretch, so it was good to get this win today. It was really, really good for us," Maciulis said. "It is early in the season and we had two good wins to start the season. Those were really, really good for us, but to come here and beat Barca is always tough."
In the opening five games, Sylvain Francisco (13.4 ppg., 15.8 PIR), Moses Wright (13.4 ppg., 15.8 PIR), Arnas Butkevicius (9.0 ppg., 12.6 PIR) and Nigel Williams-Goss (13.0 ppg., 11.6 PIR) were Zalgiris's main pillars. All of them underperformed on this night.
Williams-Goss scored the first two baskets of the game before leaving with an injury after less than 2 minutes. Butkevicius made 11 of 15 three-pointers (73.3% 3FG) before this game. He shot 0 of 2 from downtown in Barcelona for 2 points and a PIR of 8. Wright had 10 points and a PIR of 14 and even though Francisco scored 14, he buried a couple of threes once the outcome was clear after going 0 of 5 from beyond the arc earlier.
What happened, then? Zalgiris proved it is a deep team in which everyone can step up. With Williams-Goss out of the picture and Francisco struggling to find his rhythm, Maodo Lo and Deividas Sirvydis rose to the fore to make sure Zalgiris returned to winning ways. Lo was simply unstoppable, using his ballhandling to get good shots off the dribble. After being held scoreless in Round 5 against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, Lo finished the game with a season-high 20 points on 5 of 5 three-point shooting.
Sirvydis also saw extended playing time and made the most out of it. Sirvydis averaged 1.8 points on 20.0% shooting and a PIR of 0.6 in the first five games. He played over 21 minutes against Barca, scored 14 points and posted a PIR of 9. By excelling when their team needed them, Sirvydis and Lo gave Zalgiris fans plenty of confidence going forwards.
"I know how difficult it is to play here, so we are very happy. I think it was a team victory. We played solid defense for almost 40 minutes, so I am happy," Lo said after the game. "We played with physicality, so for me this is most important. We scored some tough shots, one-on-one shots but all started from the defense."
There is more, of course, and Lo pointed it out. Zalgiris had a near-perfect defensive effort, with extraordinary use of non-shooting fouls throughout the games. With Nico Laprovittola, Juan Nunez and Dario Brizuela out, Zalgiris focused on stopping Tomas Satoransky and Kevin Punter and excelled at it. Satoransky reached the end of the third quarter with 0 assists and 5 turnovers. Punter missed a free throw after making 51 consecutive attempts, and was limited to just 7 points on 3 of 9 shooting.
Despite finishing the game with 16 assists and 8 offensive rebounds, Zalgiris always found good one-on-one opportunities, finishing the game with excellent shooting percentages (61.1% 2FG, 40.7% 3FG) while Barca struggled from all angles against the guests' suffocating defense (43.9% 2FG, 31.8% 3FG).
"It is frustrating because Zalgiris played better than us. We didn't play a solid game and were not consistent on defense, especially in one-on-one situations, where they found a lot of easy situations," Barca head coach Joan Penarroya said. "After our turnovers, they ran and scored in easy fast-break situations. We didn't play solid defense and after that, we didn't play with good rhythm on offense, so no excuses."
The EuroLeague marathon continues for both teams in the coming two-round week. Zalgiris plays twice at home, facing Virtus Bologna on Tuesday and LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Thursday. Barca hosts EA7 Emporio Armani Milan on Tuesday before visiting Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade on Friday.
