[Day 2] Game A/4: Poland - Lithuania

[Hepcat]

All he needs is a bit more trust from the coach and less bashing from his compatriots, that's all

Nobody has been bashing Jonas. Every Lithuanian fan wants him to play well, which is better than he did today.

[Dreamcatcher]

he was our best and most efficient player against legit teams like Russia and Spain and had no trouble scoring against Gasols and Mozgovs of this world. All he needs is a bit more trust from the coach and less bashing from his compatriots, that's all

OMG, it was only preparation games. They mean nothing. How did our players shoot threes? Awful. And how are shooting now? Great.

Jonas played about 20 minutes in an easy game and was lost in defense. I hardly remember him so bad defending. He gained his best shape in preparation games. Meanwhile the team is only gaining it and it's a good thing.

[madmax]

That Jonas is most talented is obviuos,but that he is best player not even close...in 2014 maybe he will,in 2011 hes 9-12 player in our team.
Because right now he just cant defend big centers ( i dont think he will get much playing time agains strong turkey centers),even poland that lopata was way stronger than jonas.JOnas need to get muscles in 2-3years,than he can become dominate player playing with men,not as now agains youth players.
Good thing about Jonas is that he i getting lessons and experience in the highest level.

About our team we played way better,but opponent was that you can see anything.Tommorow and after tommorow we will see our real strenght and our posibilities to fight for medals.Turkay looks super,spain is spain.

Btw when i thought what a monster group gonna be in vilnius:
Spain,Lietuva,Turkey + serbia,France,Gerrmany its not fair for some teams,because on the other side is way easier to reach 1/4 game than in this dead group...

it's funny how you guys are always mentioning Jonas' weaknesses and never his strenghts...what is this fixation with trying to bring him down at all costs possible? Are our other centers perfect? Javtokas can't hit a bucket to save his life and Petravicius can't rebound and jump 2 centimeters off the ground. Somehow I don't see any criticism towards them - are they too good to be true in your opinion? I'm not even mentioning Songaila and his non-existant defense, but I guess his sexy jumpers today were too perfect as well. Polish team threw in a towel in the second half and was atrocious at defending perimeter all game long. I think our team will get reality check tomorrow and all those open sexy jumpers won't be there I'm afraid...

[Straight forward]

Offensive chemistry is already pretty good, we are feeling the game. Defence is slowly improving, still a little bit raw and could be even more intense. Still too many turnovers, but that's usually one of LLithuania's credit cards, should be less obvious later on. Players already nailing their shots, that means we ready for Turkey.

About individual performance:

Jankunas maybe had to be mismatch for Poland tonight, but he wasn't and struggled big time. We rolled forward exactly with Ksistof or Songaila on the flour. Songaila struggling in defence, but still the priority should be Ksistof- Songaila- Jankunas and not otherwise. Maybe Ksistof still has some health issues otherwise I can't follow why he barely had playing time in the first phase.

I liked Kalnietis, Šaras, Kaukėnas and Pocius. Perfect backourt, perfect game - keep going guys. Delininkaitis delivered and that's a good sign, but still looked lost in defence and lacked athleticism. The feeling he's not giving 100%, some room to improve.

Valančiūnas is just a kid and way over exited in these games, but the experience he's getting now is priceless.

Iliasova mentioned that if Turkey will play as they did tonight, they will have an easy game against Lithuania. Bring it on Turkey

[turk-jugoslav]

I am not very hopeful for tomorrow against Lithuania Homecourt is a big advantage but I am happy that you are playing at Cido Arena Lithuania is getting better and you shot with very good percantage in both matches...In addition, I am afraid of Lithuanian centers's pick-roll performances... We have only Ömer Aşık and Lith. centers can trash us as I watch them against Great Britain.If we defend Pg's and Sg's like the last two days,we can make Lithuanians sad

[Hepcat]

Iliasova mentioned that if Turkey will play as they did tonight, they will have an easy game against Lithuania.

The Turk coach will probably yell at İlyasova for that remark.

[auris1]

(mad)Max,you are my man,really.
I love the way you support Valanciunas.
No matter what.
But..
I think he was given enough time today,and thank god,it was against Poland.
yes,he dropped too many balls,but overall i think it was very useful game for him - he had/has to get over of the jitters.
He has to stop trying to do too many things at once,like not being a leader simply by just doing his job properly.Defence/rebound.Basics.
My theory goes that brolis put an ultimatum to him - you play properly,or you will be dropping the soap in the shower this time.
Which is why he was so nervous

[gimme85]

That Jonas is most talented is obviuos,but that he is best player not even close...in 2014 maybe he will,in 2011 hes 9-12 player in our team.
Because right now he just cant defend big centers ( i dont think he will get much playing time agains strong turkey centers),even poland that lopata was way stronger than jonas.JOnas need to get muscles in 2-3years,than he can become dominate player playing with men,not as now agains youth players.
Good thing about Jonas is that he i getting lessons and experience in the highest level.

About our team we played way better,but opponent was that you can see anything.Tommorow and after tommorow we will see our real strenght and our posibilities to fight for medals.Turkay looks super,spain is spain.

Btw when i thought what a monster group gonna be in vilnius:
Spain,Lietuva,Turkey + serbia,France,Gerrmany its not fair for some teams,because on the other side is way easier to reach 1/4 game than in this dead group...

I have to mention that we don't have many strong center just omer asik other than him, we solely rely on Enes Kanter just as you rely on Jonas I think your actual strength is in the center position that would be key part for you. As our side, if we can manage to stop your '# 5 and Saras especially Kalnietis ,we are good to go, . I didn't have the chance to watch him till last night game. Kalnietis can ruin our first place chances. About Saras I watched many of his game last year with FB Ulker and including first game of the tournament. I think he made a lot turnovers and his foot getting little bit slow but he could easily reach his top in the game , so interchangeable though.

[madmax]

(mad)Max,you are my man,really.
I love the way you support Valanciunas.
No matter what.
But..
I think he was given enough time today,and thank god,it was against Poland.
yes,he dropped too many balls,but overall i think it was very useful game for him - he had/has to get over of the jitters.
He has to stop trying to do too many things at once,like not being a leader simply by just doing his job properly.Defence/rebound.Basics.
My theory goes that brolis put an ultimatum to him - you play properly,or you will be dropping the soap in the shower this time.
Which is why he was so nervous

dude, I'm just pissed and tired how our basketball prodigy is treated between fans...he gets no respect and is scrutinized for every mistake, be it his fault or not. And yeah, "dedovshchina" might be stil prevalent in this team, especially knowing "brolis" and his rich past history

[Darknemo2000]

That Jonas is most talented is obviuos,but that he is best player not even close...in 2014 maybe he will,in 2011 hes 9-12 player in our team.
Because right now he just cant defend big centers ( i dont think he will get much playing time agains strong turkey centers),even poland that lopata was way stronger than jonas.JOnas need to get muscles in 2-3years,than he can become dominate player playing with men,not as now agains youth players.
Good thing about Jonas is that he i getting lessons and experience in the highest level.

About our team we played way better,but opponent was that you can see anything.Tommorow and after tommorow we will see our real strenght and our posibilities to fight for medals.Turkay looks super,spain is spain.

Btw when i thought what a monster group gonna be in vilnius:
Spain,Lietuva,Turkey + serbia,France,Gerrmany its not fair for some teams,because on the other side is way easier to reach 1/4 game than in this dead group...

Actually against Poland I really liked Jonas defense. He was responsible for quite a few stops under the basket by himself. He made on mistake with his help defense as usual and we got dunk and one over that, but overall in this game his defense was probably the best compared to all NT games he had (including preparation).

[Lietuvis]

Great game last night a lot of players rested and we were able to hold the 20+ margin so a good sign.

Still think LKF stuffed up by not doing something with that bicycle track as the extra tickets they would have sold would have justified it.

[LuDux]

dude, I'm just pissed and tired how our basketball prodigy is treated between fans...he gets no respect and is scrutinized for every mistake, be it his fault or not. And yeah, "dedovshchina" might be stil prevalent in this team, especially knowing "brolis" and his rich past history

My god, Valanciunas has its own little monster(s)!

[hustlerlt]

OMG, it was only preparation games. They mean nothing. How did our players shoot threes? Awful. And how are shooting now? Great.

Jonas played about 20 minutes in an easy game and was lost in defense. I hardly remember him so bad defending. He gained his best shape in preparation games. Meanwhile the team is only gaining it and it's a good thing.

I don't understand why you're saying that Jonas defense was awful.Yesterday he was pretty good there and only at the very end did one big mistake while leting the polish big man dunk with a foul.His offense was terrible,he couldn't catch any passes,which was very strange because he has good hands,but on defense he was above average.Also his rebounding wasn't as good as it used to be because polish big men always boxed him out completely,sometimes he had two people preventing him from getting a rebound,so that's why he only snatched 2 boards.

[lafa]

I don't understand why you're saying that Jonas defense was awful.Yesterday he was pretty good there and only at the very end did one big mistake while leting the polish big man dunk with a foul.His offense was terrible,he couldn't catch any passes,which was very strange because he has good hands,but on defense he was above average.Also his rebounding wasn't as good as it used to be because polish big men always boxed him out completely,sometimes he had two people preventing him from getting a rebound,so that's why he only snatched 2 boards.

In other words: "Jonas was awesome, but evil poles didn't let him shine..."
In defence he was bad, every time he went for help his man was left alone under basket. There was one moment, when he was behind the arc, turned around and couldn't find his man, so he just was staring around for a second or so like a lost puppy looking for jis master...

Honestly I don't think he's not too young or inexperienced for men's basketball, but problem is, that his A game was 2-3 weeks (edited) prior EC and now he's not in his best shape anymore...

[Darknemo2000]

In other words: "Jonas was awesome, but evil poles didn't let him shine..."
In defence he was bad, every time he went for help his man was left alone under basket. There was one moment, when he was behind the arc, turned around and couldn't find his man, so he just was staring around for a second or so like a lost puppy looking for jis master...

Honestly I don't think he's not too young or inexperienced for men's basketball, but problem is, that his A game was 2-3 prior EC and now he's not in his best shape anymore...

You really need to take off your "Jonas bad at defence" glasses off sometimes. He did make a few mistakes, but lets say in second quarter he stepped on time to break the driving lane for one of polish guards, of course then the ppass to the Jonas man came but Jonas made a good recovery and covered the shot.

Then on the next play, Pocius was dilly dalling going to the right wing man (But Lavrinovic was also running there), while he should have went left, towards Kelati, luckily Jonas realized the mistake and ran up to the three point line and covered Kelati shot.

The next moment, that Polish guy with tatoo went past Jankunas, but Jonas stepped in to prevent the polish guy shooting the half-hook, then Jankunas ran up and they together pushed him at the line way under the basket - result a poor shot that did not reach the rim.

Another moment came from the left wing, when the Kelati blew past his defender, but Jonas stepped up to force him to throw an uncomfortable pass, which became and easy prey for Jasaitis.

There was a moment on two on two when the pass went past Delininkaitis but Valanciunas was helping to guard the passing lane and touched it with his fingers, tapping it for his teammates for a steal.

There was also a god box with him and Lavrinovicius on the right side of the court. And he also helped Songaila by covering his man until he returned.

He made a few mistakes - like that alley-op dunk with a foul or that one on one play with the hook, but really Jonas defense was good today. better than Javtokas even who let his opponent score quite easily at first (remember that spin and one hand lay-up move on him?) and allowed a few rather ugly driving lanes in the first quarter.

It sometime puzzles how some people are repeating this mantra "Jonas suck at defense" so much that they don't even notice the good things he does on the court and keep singing after each match how bad he was on D.

He makes mistakes sometimes quite a number, but some poeple are so shortsighted that aren't even capable to comprehend those moments when Jonas did play well on D.

He did suck on offense without question and had his temper on the wrong side the lest few minutes, but on defensive end he did have a good game.