After the game, Jonas Valančiūnas, who scored 11 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the match, shared his comments about the game and the team’s developing play exclusively for the Žalgiris.lt website.
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“We are still in preparation, we are definitely working hard, so it’s probably normal that there isn’t that freshness yet. We are working for that freshness to come when the serious games start, not the friendly ones. I’m not saying these are not serious because the opponent is really good. We played hard, worked hard, as I said, there are things to fix, but that’s what the season preparation is for,” said J. Valančiūnas.
In the first half of the game, Žalgiris made 10 turnovers, and J. Valančiūnas said the team still needs more time.
“This is still a lack of chemistry, we only recently gathered, we have been training together for just two or three weeks. Not everything happens overnight, it definitely takes time because we have to coordinate, know who does what, how to set up for a shot, who sets the screen. There are quite a few details – that’s what we are working on,” added the big man.
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For the Žalgiris.lt website, J. Valančiūnas also highlighted positive aspects of the second half of the game, discussed the emotions shown on the court, and emphasized the main lessons.
“Of course, as I said, we played against a good team that runs, has a fast game, and showed us where we might need to improve, maybe in defense, so a great opponent to test ourselves against. We played not badly, maybe worse only in the first half, but if we had played the whole game like the second half, we might have won,” J. Valančiūnas replied.
Already on Friday at 19:30 Lithuanian time, Žalgiris will face Wrocław’s Śląsk team for third place in the “London Lions Invitational” tournament. The match will be broadcast live from 19:20 on the “Žalgiris Insider” platform.
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