2023 Lithuanian NT

[Hepcat]

Americans are in semifinal and was 2pts from winning semifinal. Their problem was that they couldnt get rebounds.

That plus the fact that they treated defence as an after thought. I mean giving up 127(OT), 113 and 110 points the times they faced tough opponents is telling.

[Shawshank]

LTU Fans voted who was the best player in 2023 tournament on knet site

1.Valanciunas 3236 votes
2.Jokubaitis 2911 votes
3.Kuzminskas 815votes
4.Brazdeikis 698votes

[Shawshank]

But aren't the American NBA players the poster boys for modern switch defences? They didn't exactly excel at limiting the opposition's scoring this tournament.

Was it Germany or Latvia that played a four man box zone with a floater guarding the opposition's big shooter one-on-one?

Americans are in semifinal and was 2pts from winning semifinal.Their problem was that they couldnt get rebounds .With one good top 10 nba big rebounder americans could have won gold.

Tendencies is simple in 2020s basketbal if NT dont have perimeter elite player that will score or create versus bigs after switch defence in critical moments that NT isnt making semifinal or winning close games

I dont think its accidental that semifinal teams had Schroder,Bogdanovich,Shai,Edwards elite scorers 1 vs 1.

Everytime their NT was in trouble and needed basket they went to them


Spain didnt have Brown/Rubio and couldnt survive endings even with mastermind of Scariola

Serbia didnt had Bogdanovich,had Jokic in 2022 no semifinal.It was other way around in 2023 and Serbia is in Final

Mills got old and no Australia in semifinal anymore

Latvians PG Zagars was balling big time by far biggets suprise of tournament and Latvia was one shot from semifinal.


Tendencies is clear of 2020s Fiba when most NT want to play all switch defence what kinda skillset leader teams need to have.

[Hepcat]

That last loss was really ugly and I can't justify that. We could take 5th spot and to have just Germany, Serbia, Canada, USA in front of us, but instead we got swept by Latvia.

That absolute butt kicking sort of tarnished the whole tournament for me. Yes, the team was short handed with both Vaidas Kariniauskas and Eimantas Bendžius out but the team was thoroughly outplayed by the Latvians right from the first minute.

Kariniauskas didn't deliver in both key games (Greece, Serbia), so this project was a collapse pretty much despite good game against USA scoring wise.

A +16 in 17:44 of playing time against Greece indicates he was doing a lot right in the game.

[Straight forward]

That last loss was really ugly and I can't justify that. We could take 5th spot and to have just Germany, Serbia, Canada, USA in front of us, but instead we got swept by Latvia. To me 2 sweeps in the tournament is something really bad and unjustifiable. The last time it happened was 2016. One could say the game was nearly meaningless, but it's official game of major tournament, and it still matters in terms of prestige and FIBA rankings (looking to OQT 2024),

Maksvytis and NT performance was ambivalent and controversial. Consistent group stage, wins against Greece and specially USA, but then 2 sweeps...

Maksvytis should finish this bloody Olympic cycle, hopefully the last Olympic cycle where we suck balls (and that goes since 2008), but I sick and tired with Maksvytis not being able to prepare NT for key knock out stage (or Adomaitis, Maskoliunas). The way we lost against Serbia is unjustifiable. The way we lost against Latvia too. Maksvytis could just retire and I wouldn't blink one time. But we know that no-one will take NT at this stage. No-one is stupid enough, unless some unproven f...as Maskoliunas (he deserves that after the shit he did with NT and how he acted).

Regarding individuals - Jokubaitis is the best player of this team. Period. Gecevicius nailed it, and I 100% agree with him. Brazdeikis is getting better slowely, but I will always see him as a strong role player. Maybe even as strong as Kleiza was in 2007/2008, but that's his role pretty much, IMO. I don't see Brazdeikis as an answer at 2 or 3 as a starter. He should be coming off the bench and play that instant offense guy's role. Pretty good tournament for him. Sedekerskis as we already talked fills that 4 position as a grinder and I would like to see him more at 5, just as Maskvytis threw him on Vucevic, but really forgot that idea too much later. I give props to Kuz for being good vet tooSirvydis showed some glimpses of becoming useful role player, but he still should put up a lot of work in upcoming 2 years to become such.

Negative - JV makes any team worse with his 100% defensive collapse each and every game and old school offense. Kariniauskas didn't deliver in both key games (Greece, Serbia), so this project was a collapse pretty much despite good game against USA scoring wise. I expected more from Dimsa after good EL season. Normantas was meh as expected. Too slow against top true guards. Maksvytis made a mistake taking both of these cause they can't stay with true agile guards. Motiejunas disappointed, specially in second half of tournament. He shouldn't be near NT ever again. Bendzius was too inconsistent and soft defensively. Maldunas is just misunderstanding which is somehow common for Maksvytis.

At the end of the day the tournament was a disappointment. And Maksvytis remains unable to win key games and continues with questionable roster selection. That's how I see things.

[Hepcat]

Winning medals teams in 2020s better have such individual perimeter tallent to beat modern switch defences in critical moments

But aren't the American NBA players the poster boys for modern switch defences? They didn't exactly excel at limiting the opposition's scoring this tournament.

Was it Germany or Latvia that played a four man box zone with a floater guarding the opposition's big shooter one-on-one?

All tournament team world cup organisers went modern posionless way and choosen 5 guards

Shai,Bogdanovich,Schroder,Edwards,Doncic

And speaking of poster boys, are any of those all star selections known for their defence? Wan't Luka Doncic one of the laziest defenders in the tournament?

[Shawshank]

2024 summer Domas 23-24min Jonas 16-17min

And they never together on the floor.


All tournament team world cup organisers went modern posionless way and choosen 5 guards

Shai,Bogdanovich,Schroder,Edwards,Doncic

How ltu guards matches with them?

Winning medals teams in 2020s better have such individual perimeter tallent to beat modern switch defences in critical moments

[LuDux]

Valanciunas averaged 22 minutes. Shows that he has no problem playing less minutes and in different role

[LuDux]

I wonder though. Backup PG Vaidas Kariniauskas was out sick (not even on the bench). Sounds like something he ate disagreed with him, i.e. food poisoning. I wonder if the rest of the team was afflicted as well with more minor cases? They played that way. Hopefully it wasn't the case that they'd simply annihilated themselves the previous evening in various Manila bars to congratulate themselves on a good tournament and were all badly hungover. Has anybody heard anything?

Bunch of US players mised 3rd place final due to ilnessess too. Also at the beginning of tournament everybody in Lithuanian NT was coughing so maybe it was something in the air.

[Hepcat]

Zagars - 17 assists, Lithuania - 11 assists. I'm not sure if i've seen smth like this.

Yes. Kariniauskas by himself had ten assists against Slovenia a couple days ago so today's numbers were shocking.

[Hepcat]

Can somebody explain what happend with Lithuania in the last game against Latvia?

Well today's ass kicking certainly took the bloom off the rose. So much for being able to say that this was indeed a very good team that just happened to meet the wrong team (the gold medal winners?) at the exact wrong time in the QF.

I wonder though. Backup PG Vaidas Kariniauskas was out sick (not even on the bench). Sounds like something he ate disagreed with him, i.e. food poisoning. I wonder if the rest of the team was afflicted as well with more minor cases? They played that way. Hopefully it wasn't the case that they'd simply annihilated themselves the previous evening in various Manila bars to congratulate themselves on a good tournament and were all badly hungover. Has anybody heard anything?

And of course sniper Eimantas Bendžius being out with injury for three games now and Ignas Brazdeikis hurting himself at the start of the third quarter left the team seriously short handed.

[Dreamcatcher]

Zagars - 17 assists, Lithuania - 11 assists. I'm not sure if i've seen smth like this. It's been a great WC for a Nevezis player and for a whole Latvian team. I wanted a foreign head coach for a Lith team after the last EC and here you are - a great example from Latvia.

It's also one of the most disappointing summers. All the NTs (youth including) disappointed even if most of them (except U18) showed a good basketball at first. But then they collapsed. That's the least to say.

[zalias]

that brazdeilis injury looked really bad, i really hope its not something serious

[Dreamcatcher]

Can somebody explain what happend with Lithuania in the last game against Latvia?

I can show.

085852616-0d2ed16c-fdcd-43d8-91a7-e2431def846c.jpg

[fasoulaki]

Can somebody explain what happend with Lithuania in the last game against Latvia?