Quarter-finals: Russia vs Lithuania

[Hepcat]

...there is no way he would tolerate Jasikevicius and Kleiza's effort which they displayed today in the most crucial game of the last 4 years.

How the hell do you see lack of effort on their part? The problem yesterday was their shooting was off target. Linas Kleiza was one for seven. But basketball really and truly is a game of centimetres. He was off by by a centimetre or two yesterday. Had he not been off by a centimetre or two on five of those shots, people would be praising him highly today. But there was no lack of effort from the players yesterday or throughout the tournament. The reasons for their lack of success are elsewhere.

that's the whole point...your sarcasm detector is obviously malfunctioning here

In this case I would have preferred an honest answer.

[Hepcat]

Kurtinaitis likes to make it more challanging like the point difference or for example in one game against Marijampole Suduva Rytas were allowed to let Marijampole score 45 in a game and with 4:36 minutes to go in the last quarter Marijampole had a three and the result was 44, and boy you should have seen how every Rytas player were dying on court to not allow that single point. And the succeeded Marijampole couldnt score a single point during those 4 minutes straight and Kurtinaitis had to take whole team to a restaurant (him paying all bills of course).

Hmmmmm. Let's see. Kurtinaitis' salary was probably greater than that of the whole Sūduva team. In fact, the ball boy on the Rytas team was probably paid more than Sūduva's starting point guard. Do you think that maybe a better idea on his part might have been to take out the whole Marijampolės Sūduva team to a fine restaurant after the game?

Perhaps the strapping young power forward for Sakalai might (very gently of course) have pointed out to Kurtinaitis that as a construction worker by day he didn't need to be humiliated by a better financed organization by night and Kurtinaitis might look for another way to motivate his players?

[madmax]

How the hell do you see lack of effort on their part? The problem yesterday was their shooting was off target. Linas Kleiza was one for seven. But basketball really and truly is a game of centimetres. He was off by by a centimetre or two yesterday. Had he not been off by a centimetre or two on five of those shots, people would be praising him highly today. But there was no lack of effort from the players yesterday or throughout the tournament. The reasons for their lack of success are elsewhere.

Neither Kleiza nor Jasikevicius ever played any defense or even tried to play it - FACT.
The only reason why these two guys are praised for their basketball skills is because of their offensive repertoire. And whenever they have a "bad" day offensively, they become literally worthless on the court. That's why Kurtinaitis would never tolerate lazy, non-defense playing stars on his team, unless they compensated this aspect of the game with their brilliant offensive output.

[Darknemo2000]

Hmmmmm. Let's see. Kurtinaitis' salary was probably greater than that of the whole Sūduva team. In fact, the ball boy on the Rytas team was probably paid more than Sūduva's starting point guard. Do you think that maybe a better idea on his part might have been to take out the whole Marijampolės Sūduva team to a fine restaurant after the game?

Perhaps the strapping young power forward for Sakalai might (very gently of course) have pointed out to Kurtinaitis that as a construction worker by day he didn't need to be humiliated by a better financed organization by night and Kurtinaitis might look for another way to motivate his players?

Kurtinaitis doesnt give a damn how much Suduva or Sakalai earn. fact is he doesnt give a damn about those teams at all. He doesnt care enough about them to see them humiliated. What he cares about is his teams effort and performance. Since against the teams like Suduva or Sakalai you cannot put yourself out nor you cannot even have a decent practice defensively he started to do those challanges to his players so that they learn to pressure the ball even in such games against Suduva or Sakalai. Its certainly better approach than Zalgiris approach which was - just win it. Why? Because you take absolutely nothing from such games other than those points in tablet, with Kurtinaitis the team at least learned to pressure the ball defensively never easing up against opponents no matter what the difference is.

This is what our U-16 lacked this year. A lot of games they lost they were winning at first but then let themselves relax and then never were able to get back in the games and lost one match after another.

You have to break them. Even when you lead 60 points or more, brake them till the very last second this is the best approach to the games, specially the games against underdogs. Its not red cross or charity organization to take pity on anyone or a resort to take a sweet relaxation time off. This is a basketball game.

[Hepcat]

Neither Kleiza nor Jasikevicius ever played any defense or even tried to play it - FACT.

First of all that's your opinion. I'd need quite a bit of corroboration to accept that opinion of yours as fact. The only objective measure of effort available from yesterday's game is rebounds, and Team Lietuva did outrebound a taller Team Russia 43-38.

Secondly, who are the players who play defence on the Lithuanian team in your opinion?

[Hepcat]

Kurtinaitis doesnt give a damn how much Suduva or Sakalai earn. fact is he doesnt give a damn about those teams at all. He doesnt care enough about them to see them humiliated.

Be nice to see a player from one of those teams go on to stick it to Kurtinaitis at some point, and then be very public about enjoying what he did.

[Darknemo2000]

Be nice to see a player from one of those teams go on to stick it to Kurtinaitis at some point, and then be very public about enjoying what he did.

Believe it or not but there are guys who prefer strict, no-nonsense approach over very lax chaos like Sireika's who allows players a lot simply because he is a very nice human person but isnt all that good as a coach.

Blatt for example is certainly more strict than Kemzura and I did not see Russians complain all that much about it even though when Shved wanted to argue about one foul and Blatt simply said "You are out" to him and benched him for the rest of the game.

He may not do pushups after the game but I doubt Kurtinaitis would do those in the final stages of the tournament as well. Preparation games are all together another beast though.

[Darknemo2000]

First of all that's your opinion. The only objective measure of effort available from yesterday's game is rebounds, and Team Lietuva did outrebound a taller Team Russia 43-38.

We were loosing the rebound battle by 6 at the half but in the second half Kemzura limited Kleiza's minutes more and gave Valanciunas chance to play which lead to our run where Russians missed shots and Val or other players were grabbing the rebounds well.

Strange enough since Kleiza's personal rebounding stats always look very fine if not great, but as a team we better control the glass when Jankunas is on the court. Probably because Kleiza never bothers to box-oout (which was why Kirilenko had a couple of those easy put-backs against us).

[Hepcat]

Believe it or not but there are guys who prefer strict, no-nonsense approach over very lax chaos like Sireika's who allows players a lot simply because he is a very nice human person but isnt all that good as a coach.

Actually I was talking about a player from barely more than amateur teams such as Sakalai or Sūduva whom Kurtinaitis once humiliated.

Blatt for example is certainly more strict than Kemzura and I did not see Russians complain all that much about it even though when Shved wanted to argue about one foul and Blatt simply said "You are out" to him and benched him for the rest of the game.

But from what's been posted here Kurtinaitis sounds far more harsh than David Blatt. As in many/most things in life there is a middle path. Blatt may have gotten it right as a coach.