Day 11 Euroleague

Real Madrid - Zalgiris Kaunas

* With Lull being ineligible for the game, Laso had just two options left regarding his start-up PG: Draper or Doncic. Real's coach decided for the latter. You have to got courage in oreder to play with a 17 years old as your starting PG in a Euroleague game, regardless to how talented he is. It is a great desicion from Laso. This is the way to develope further a young player. The Slovenian guard, by the way, was not free of mistakes. Laso let him play even after he turned the ball over or messed a fast break. Again, great desicion of the Spanish coach. The reward came in the form of two money time three pointers, who gave Real the game. He is my MVP for this game.

* Real has their usuall play to set shooters free, with a screen of a big guy the Fernandez or Carrol coming out of the paint. Jasikevicius dealed with it perfectly using a help and recover or a simple switch, and denied the Blancos from playing their drill. Real had 5/14 in each half. Fernandez and Carroll finished the game with one three pointer combined. In the second half the Blancos made some adaptations the Lithuanian defence. Since Zalgiris were switching, Real used Rudy and Carroll as decoys, and passed the ball to the big guy who screened. With a guard guarding him, it usually ended up with points.

* Zalgiris were doing their play, which I mentioned last week (and resembles Laso's play), much more successfully (more about it in the next paragraph). Their 8/13 from the 3pt range helped them go to the half time tied, even though they lost the first half 44-66 in PIR.

* At the end of the night Kaunas lost in the PIR 85-124. So how come they managed to force 40 minutes of a tight game? They had three keys: A. The player J.C. Carroll was guarding was always attacking the rim (or taking a three points shot). Usually it was Pangos, who should thank Carroll for most of his 19 points; B. As written in the last paragraph, good screening allowed Zalgiris some good looks to the basket from beyond the arch. Kaunas took the same amount of shots from three as Madrid, but scored three more. That is 9 points more, and the difference between a tight game or garbage time in the last minutes; C. Trying to play fast and make as many points as possible in transition.

* Anthony Randolph with another impressive defensive performance. It is not just his two highlight blocks on poor Motum (who would probably have nightmares tonight). Randolph seals the paint completely, forcing Zalgiris' players the change their shots. When he is on the court, penetrating the paint is a suicide mission. I'll say it again: the best Forguard outside the NBA.

#Euroleague #RealMadrid #ZalgirisKaunas