2023 Lithuanian NT

[zalias]

its interesting how this team quit playing that ugly, forced post up basketball and started playing freely only after sabonis got injured when in theory sabonis is a perfect player for this playstyle.

[Shawshank]

Problem was never playing Jonas or Domas with 4 shooters around them

Problem was playing 2 non shooting bigs together

[Hepcat]

Well there's still a long way to go and nothing's been decided but I'd rather have a 54-37 lead at the half than vice-versa. I love the way Lithuania is dominating the boards having taken down 10 of 20 rebounds from the Ameicans' glass while only giving up 5 of 21 from their own glass. And of course the three point shooting of 75% by the Lithuanians has been wonderful!

[Straight forward]

That's what happens when LTU comes as underdog into tournament. Hope we will carry this spirit into 4finals too. This big lead against USA may be contra-productive for us unfortunately. Hope not. Would be super cool to go with it all tournament long.

[Hepcat]

What an ugly start to the second half! Five quick turnovers in a row including two offensive fouls by Valančiūnas, a technical by Coach Maksvytis and a 24 second violation and then shortly thereafter another 24 second violation. Groan.

[Hepcat]

Lietuva 110 U.S.A. 104

So after a discombobulated start to the second half, the Lithuanian team regained its composure and held on for the W!

[Straight forward]

LOL:

https://twitter.com/TheDunkCentral/status/1698344887798686151

[zalias]

hopefully this win boosts their confidence even more, but this 3p % is not sustainable

[Hepcat]

So the unheralded Vaidas Kariniauskas was the leading scorer and Basketnews.lt Player of the Game in Team Lietuva's biggest victory in over a dozen years. This victory will go down in the annals of Lithuanian basketball and continue to be celebrated for many years!



But I noticed that in the second half both Valančiūnas and Donatas Motiejūnas started being called for offensive fouls which caused Coach Maksvytis to explode on the sidelines. What was that all about? For what behaviour were Lithuania's centers being penalized? Do you think it might have been something the U.S. coaching staff called to the attention of the refs at the half?

[Shawshank]

I hate this win looking at big picture of entire tournament

NT 2023 from underdog team become favourite in people eyes

Now podcast, articles will say LTU should fight for gold, where we heard that beating in group USA and comming home with nothing?

Like zalias said this crazy shooting is not sustainable

After this crazy win pressure will be huge on team and getting pesky Serbs is bad news it will be super physical battle

But our 2023 NT full of surprises hopefully they will keep surprising everybody

[Hepcat]

Indeed. A QF loss now against ancient rivals Serbia would be heartbreaking.

[Dreamcatcher]

Imagine that before WC you were told that Lithuania will beat USA, score 110 pts and Kariniauskas willl be a top scorer in Lith team

Unfortunately, it cost Serbia in 1/4.

[Hepcat]

Serbian fans are delightedly celebrating the fact that their team now avoids the United States in the QFs. There's only one good way for Team Lietuva to respond.

[Svajunas]

I hate that we Are so used to being loosers and we cant enjoy these wins, because we are affraid of being called favourites or we are afraid that this win gives as serbs.
let’s just enjoy the process and tournament , we deserve this after all these years

[Straight forward]

I hate that we Are so used to being loosers and we cant enjoy these wins, because we are affraid of being called favourites or we are afraid that this win gives as serbs.
let’s just enjoy the process and tournament , we deserve this after all these years

Yeah, this. I admit I had different emotions during the game. But when we finally beat USA, I was like, fuck it, it's so great! I truly enjoyed it. It's historical win no matter what. Just like 2004 tournament is remembered more positively than negatively (at least to me) because we had arguably the best team ever which only choked once against Italy. We even were close to beat USA again in small final. That's how good we were. I think people afraid Serbs too much and doesn't really cultivate the thought of Fontecchio going with +30 game against us. Serbia lost to Italy two times in a row now. I do believe that Serbia is better team, but Italy can have one of their hardcore games against us easily too. So it's pointless to gamble. Just go and play your best basketball you can play and enjoy the knock out stage. LTU already made a statement, we had 5 straight wins and took down USA. Even if we don't make semis, we already sent the message - LTU is coming back as a major force in basketball. Top 8 is basically elite these days, specially these days! FIBA never was so competitive and equal as now. So when you get to 4finals, you are among elite. I sincerely have no clue who would win 4 games series between this LTU and SRB. No clue. It can go either way. We also shouldn't even forget that we were super close to beat Euro champs last year, like controlled the game for 37 minutes or something. This year's Jokubaitis probably would had made that three at the end of 4th quarter when you think about it.


LTU is the only NT to beat USA 3 times in modern era if I'm not mistaken (aside Americup probably). That's history written to the stone. That's a great day for LTU basketball.