3X3 in Lithuania

[Hepcat]

There's been a perhaps significant rule change to 3x3 basketball. To speed up the game, a player cannot spend any more than three seconds with the ball in the paint now instead of the previous five. The change would tend to undercut the value of a dominant low post player such as Aurelijus Pukelis to any team.

We'll see how Šakiai Gulbelė adjusts to the change in club play. A key part of Gulbelė's strategy has always been to get the ball to Pukelis down low whenever there seems to be a mismatch which is typically the case.

[Hepcat]

Well this Team LT with the four interchangeable pieces certainly is quick:

[Hepcat]

The Lithuanian Women tried to match China physically yesterday but they basically took a pounding:

I'm wondering whether all four of the Chinese women could pass chromosone testing (which I don't believe is done anymore in women's sports).



Interesting as well that every one of the Lithuanian women has a boyfriend or husband who also plays at the highest levels of 3x3 basketball:

Monika Grigalauskytė - Modestas Kumpys
Kamilė Nacickaitė - Dimeo van der Horst (Netherlands)
Martyna Petrėnaitė - Marijus Užupis
Gabrielė Šulskė - Vytautas Šulskis

[Hepcat]

So the Lithuanian Men went 4-0 in the preliminary round robin. This included a 22-3 pasting of Taiwan in only 5:16 of playing time which was not only the tournament's most lopsided game but also the shortest game by a whopping 0:59! The Men will now go directly to a QF against the winner of a game between the United States and New Zealand.

At 3-1 the Women will now go up against the Netherlands (2-2) in a round of sixteen sudden death game.

[Hepcat]

It was a truly excellent day for Lithuanian basketball in Antwerp today!

Women

Lithuania 19 Netherlands 10
Lithuania 19 Poland 16 (QF)

The Women will now go up against Canada tomorrow in a semi-final.

Men

Lithuania 21 United States 11

Gintautas Matulis appears to be the captain of the Lithuanian team which is not surprising since he's also the oldest player. Darius Tarvydas and Ignas Vaitkus are neck-and-neck when it comes to leading the team in scoring. But today it was Marijus Užupis who led the way in dismantling the U.S. team. Užupis was not only the leading scorer with seven points, but he had six rebounds and a whopping four blocks as well!

Here's the video of the U.S. - Lithuania game:

The Men will now go up against France tomorrow in a semi-final.

[Straight forward]

Final Lithuania vs Serbia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0EeSJm3iDo&ab_channel=FIBA3x3

[Hepcat]

A disappointing last day overall.

[Straight forward]

A disappointing last day overall.

Silver is pretty good though.

But I still don't get this type of BB.

If that was Brazdeikis, Sabonis, Jokubaitis VS Bogdanovic, Jokic, Micic I would understand. When I'll see elite players going for it, I will understand. Now it's about which country will gather best second rate PROs/borderline PROs?

[Hepcat]

Two things (the same ones I'm constantly explaining to people across the board, i.e. several sports):

1. While it's the same sport, 3x3 is very much a different game! It's as different from regular basketball as rugby league is from rugby union, as Canadian football is from American football, as softball is from baseball, as arena box lacrosse is from field lacrosse, as racket ball and paddle ball are from squash, as beach volleyball is from ordinary volleyball, as five pin bowling is from ten pin, as American billiards is from snooker. If you took a specialist from the higher profile, bigger money game, it would take considerable time and training for that player to adapt to the different game. It would certainly not be immediate. (And I really get rather angry having to explain that our football in Canada should be appreciated on its own merits as opposed to as simply some sort of derivative of American football because it's not.) So the 3x3 players we've seen these past few days are the best basketball players willing to put in the time to play 3x3 at the highest levels.

2. Why on earth does it matter to you whether a spectator sport is being played by technically the best athletes anyway? Me I don't take a stop watch to games so I don't care whether the players I see are one tenth of a second slower in the forty yard dash. What matters to me is the PRICE versus the entertainment value of what I'm watching. And the entertainment value is a function of the closeness of the games (blowouts are boring) and my having a sentimental rooting interest. (I mean if you don't care who wins, why watch?) Therefore I'm happy to watch and cheer for the London Knights playing Major Junior hockey and the Western Mustangs play university football in Canada. Are they the "best"? No, but what the hell does it matter? And if your bottom line is skill, why do you cheer for Team Lietuva against the U.S. Dream Team?

By the same token I now find it increasingly difficult to get worked up about major league sports. When I was a kid my father would often ask me why I felt such a heartfelt attachment to my favourite major league teams when after all they were pros playing for money. As a kid I contended that it didn't matter. And back in the 1960's my father was only partially right because athletes weren't paid beyond the dreams of avarice at the time. These days though I'm casually disinterested in most major league sports since the sporting aspect is now dwarfed by the business aspect. I'll look at the numbers in the Wall Street Journal instead when I want business.

[Hepcat]

There's one other reason that 3x3 has really caught my fancy in the past seventeen months. I think it's really cool that comparatively tiny Lithuanian cities such as Šakiai (where two of my cousins were born), Utena, Raudondvaris, Marijampolė and now Kėdainiai as well field teams that play (and generally very well) in major international tournaments against teams from Vienna, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Düsseldorf, Lausanne, Nantes, Paris, Warsaw, Tokyo, Yokohama, Manila, Harlem, Chicago, Melbourne, Montréal, Edmonton, etc.

[Hepcat]

And I really get rather angry having to explain that our football in Canada should be appreciated on its own merits as opposed to as simply some sort of derivative of American football because it's not.

With respect to the level of talent in the CFL, check out the athleticism Winnipeg born University of Manitoba graduate and WR with the British Columbia Lions, Shai Ross, displays here with this dunk:

[Hepcat]

And check out Shai Ross' insane spin move on the floor:

[Hepcat]

Interesting as well that every one of the Lithuanian women has a boyfriend or husband who also plays at the highest levels of 3x3 basketball:

Monika Grigalauskytė - Modestas Kumpys
Kamilė Nacickaitė - Dimeo van der Horst (Netherlands)
Martyna Petrėnaitė - Marijus Užupis
Gabrielė Šulskė - Vytautas Šulskis

After the medal ceremony:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfSCx7jgq2n/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=f97affc1-09b7-4914-82aa-a6e4204cc6fa

[Hepcat]

But I still don't get this type of BB.

If that was Brazdeikis, Sabonis, Jokubaitis VS Bogdanovic, Jokic, Micic I would understand. When I'll see elite players going for it, I will understand. Now it's about which country will gather best second rate PROs/borderline PROs?

While it's the same sport, 3x3 is very much a different game! ... So the 3x3 players we've seen these past few days are the best basketball players willing to put in the time to play 3x3 at the highest levels.

So this past Sunday's Lithuanian 3x3 League Tour 2 final in Panevėžys was between Vilniaus Rivile and Šakių Gulbelė. Three of the four players on the Rivile team - Gintautas Matulis, Vytautas Šulskis and Ignas Vaitkus - play in the LKL for the above average Utenos Juventus team. The other, Ignas Razutis, plays PG for Telšiai which has medalled three years in a row in the second tier NKL. Meanwhile three of the four players on the Gulbelė team - Paulius Beliavičius, Aurelijus Pukelis and Marijus Užupis - play for Šakių Vytis an above average NKL team that finished in fourth place last year. The other, Modestas Kumpys, plays for Gargždai the reigning NKL champion.

With three solid LKL players on the Rivile team, the game should have been no contest. Well indeed it wasn't:

Šakių Gulbelė 22 Rivile 11



There's a huge element of unpredictability in 3x3 games. Neither the provenance of the individual players nor even yesterday's results seem to matter in the quick ten minute or first to 21 games.