The Zvezda forward shined against ALBA in Round 14, one week after impressing against another of his ex-teams, Baskonia.
Rokas Giedraitis punished his former club... again
The law of haunting former clubs meant that Rokas Giedraitis was always likely to take a central role when Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade hosted ALBA Berlin on Thursday night, and so it proved. The Lithaunia international shined in Round 14, recording 19 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals as Zvezda coasted to a comfortable 85-71 home victory.
The experienced forward moved to Serbia during the summer after a three-season stint with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, having earlier started his career in the elite of European basketball with two seasons at ALBA. Whilst playing for ALBA, he earned a selection to the All-EuroCup First Team in 2018-19 and then enjoyed a strong debut season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in 2019-20.
After seeing their team sign a proven veteran performer, Zvezda fans could have been forgiven for expecting more from Giedraitis than he showed during the opening weeks of the season. Before last week, he had only reached double digits in scoring on two occasions and had recorded nine consecutive single-digit PIRS after the Round 13 loss at Valencia.
Giedraitis has rediscovered his groove
Something needed to provide a spark and it came on familiar territory last Friday night, as he delivered his best performance of the season in a narrow loss at former club Baskonia, netting 24 points on 5-of-9 three-point shooting along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.
And on Thursday night back at his new home in Belgrade, he was on the money again to produce his second consecutive strong game against an old employer.
He put Zvezda in charge against ALBA
Giedraitis was decisive from the early stages, scoring 5 points in a 10-2 run that first gave Zvezda control of the game. He soon added another triple to reach halftime as the game’s leading scorer with 12 points, then kept on shining after the interval with 7 points in less than 7 minutes to start the third quarter. That contribution also served to take the game away from ALBA for good and completed his scoring for the night.
After the game, Giedraitis allowed himself to be content with his contribution... but only to an extent. "This will give us more confidence in each other," he said. "We played a really good second half. Let's enjoy it now... at least until tomorrow!"
Like Zvezda in general, Giedraitis has taken a while to get going this season. But with PIRs of 24 and 23 in his last two games, the 31-year-old has shown promising signs that he’s ready to become a key player for the Crvena Zvezda men. Now he just needs to repeat that form against a team he didn’t formerly represent.