Jonas Valančiūnas caused concern among Žalgiris fans.
This summer, the 34-year-old center forward who signed with the Kaunas club left the court after playing just one and a half minutes.
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An unpleasant incident occurred during a Žalgiris attack when throwing the ball out of bounds, J. Valančiūnas was setting a screen for Marius Grigonis, who accidentally stepped on his teammate’s foot while running.
M. Grigonis gritted his teeth because of his knee but continued the game, while J. Valančiūnas was hurt more seriously – holding his right leg, he limped off the court.
Marekas Blaževičius replaced the main center forward, and J. Valančiūnas initially stayed on the bench, then after the break remained in the locker room icing his leg.
The severity of J. Valančiūnas’s injury is not yet clear.
On Sunday, Žalgiris, even without their main center forward, had no major troubles against Sabah.
The Azerbaijani champions, who parted ways with Rimas Kurtinaitis this summer, are preparing for the FIBA Champions League, but on Sunday it quickly became clear that they are far from a EuroLeague team.
Žalgiris gained over a 20-point lead before halftime, with ten players scoring points.
At the end of the game, Žalgiris’s lead exceeded 30 points.
The top scorer for the Kaunas team was Edgaras Ulanovas with 18 points, who also made 7 assists.
Marekas Blaževičius, playing again for Žalgiris after a four-year break, added 17 points and 6 rebounds, Sterling Brown scored 14 points, hitting 4 three-pointers out of 7 attempts, and Ąžuolas Tubelis scored 12.
Points for Žalgiris were scored by: Edgaras Ulanovas 18, Marekas Blaževičius 17, Sterling Brown 14, Ąžuolas Tubelis 12, Marius Grigonis 11, Dustin Sleva 10, Maodo Lo 8, Arnas Butkevičius 7, Dovydas Giedraitis and Nigel Williams-Goss (8 assists) 6 each, Sabenas Lee 3.
Top scorers for Sabah were: Charles Manning 20, Frankie Fidler 15, Nick Perkins 12.
In this match, Žalgiris made an impressive 19 three-pointers out of 38 attempts.
Tomas Masiulis was able to try out players returning from national teams for the first time this fall: Ąžuolas Tubelis, M. Blaževičius, and Maodo Lo.
This was Žalgiris’s third preseason game.
In the first game, the Kaunas club defeated Riga’s Zeli 97:85, with J. Valančiūnas scoring 20 points as the top scorer.
Jonas was the top scorer with 14 points in the second friendly match, where Žalgiris won 82:77 against Utena’s Juventus.
Next week, Tomas Masiulis’s team faces a tougher test – on Thursday in a tournament in London, they will play against another EuroLeague club, Paris, and on Friday Žalgiris will play against London Lions or Wroclaw Slask.
Žalgiris will officially start the season on September 17 with an away game against Gargždai, and will begin EuroLeague play on September 24 in Belgrade against Crvena zvezda.
