Before the meeting with the „Śląsk“ basketball players, a special interview directly from London with assistant coach Mantas Šernius appeared on the „Žalgiris Insider“ live broadcast, in which „Žalgiris TV“ content creator Lukas Skersys asked the strategist about the main lessons from the game against „Paris“, the dynamics of the coaching staff, and the 15-player rotation.
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„I think the team will lack cohesion until Christmas, as we said last year. Detailed polishing is underway, bringing situations to automatism. If in the first three control games it was enough to do everything at 80% speed, with the Paris team it was not enough even at 99%. This is one of the fastest teams, which last season visited the Valencia team with an average of 6 more attacks. We prepared the team for this, we were set, but during the game we realized that we have a really serious opponent, so in the second half we had to adjust more than once,“ said M. Šernius.
The strategist also emphasized the tone set by the „Paris“ basketball players and later highlighted the main lessons.
„You need patience in offense, purely reading situations, aggressive defense, and a lot of small ball protection. This is not new, but the Paris team performs it qualitatively and at high speed, so our guards had to adapt and see both Jonas and that second pass, attacking from the corners. These are new situations that, I think, benefited the team and in the future players will not need to repeat 3-4 times how we play. During the game, when the opponents changed defense, they will adapt much faster. Our guards are really high-level and they have already seen this, it’s just that the whole team has to work as one mechanism,“ emphasized M. Šernius.
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The coach also emphasized the desired team reaction and discussed the long player rotation.
„Whether you have 8, 12, or 15 players, everyone still wants to show themselves and get that role in the team. As Tomas emphasizes, we cannot rely on talent, so if we want to rise higher in the standings, we have to play team basketball and win games as a team. And if necessary, maybe in a tough moment, that talent will help a bit. Now is the time when each player has to find their role, and we, the coaches, have to help them. From the coaches’ side, the main work is happening now, but it’s not an easy time for the players either. After this tournament, we will move towards one training cycle and the players’ muscles will ease a bit, but the mind will get harder and harder,“ answered M. Šernius.
Finally, M. Šernius spoke about the dynamics of the coaching staff starting their second season, so we invite you to watch the entire video.
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