LKL

Photo: Irmantas Sidarevicius

Lithuania is one of the best teams so far in Turkey. Even though they have more than 10 top-class players out of the team (the reasons for that vary) they are fighting every game, they look like a “team”, with team spirit, they have discernible roles and they look… really good!

Group D looked easy for Spain before the tournament started, but after the preliminary round… Lithuania was the one laughing. What I consider to be most impressive are the comebacks the team did during 3 of its games.

Lithuania was 17 down (39-56) against Canada, 15 down (14-29) against France and 15 down (11-26) against Spain, but they won all of these games! That is, at least, impressive, the energy and fighting spirit of this team is amazing and in tournaments like this, being willing to fight for every possession no matter how badly the game goes is a huge advantage.

Kestutis Kemzura has formed a team that has roles for everyone and is able to emphasize the individual strengths of all the players on the roster. Linas Kleiza is the leader and star of this team, but if you try to stop Lithuania you can’t stay there. There is the amazing Jonas Maciulis, there are Mantas Kalnietis, Martynas Pocius and also the big guys, Jankunas and Klimavicius that helped a lot after Javtokas’s injury.

The Lithuanian team looks very good so far and is the team that shows the most athleticism and energy during a game (apart from the USA team). They don’t have a very good assist to turnover ratio (1.01/1.00) and this is something they should work on ahead of the knock-out stages, but they are a young team that plays it to the limit every night.

Their next game against China will determine whether they’ll be successful or not in this World Championship. The 5-0 record so far is impressive, but if you lose your first do-or-die game then you can’t consider yourself a success. Of course, I think Lithuania will win the Chinese team and will advance to the quarterfinals.

Linas Kleiza is a force that can’t be stopped and if China chooses to guard him with Yi then they’ll get their best player very tired to carry them offensively. China has a lot of big bodies, but most of them like to play from the perimeter as well and Lithuania has a lot of forwards that have quick legs and can follow (for example) Zhizhi Wang outside and guard his three-pointers. Kalnietis and Gecevicius can pressure Liu Wei hard enough to tire him and force him make turnovers. Sun Yue is a big force for China, but Maciulis or Pocius can contain him.

Lithuania must try and run, must get points from transition, as China will have trouble following to scores over 80-90 points. Kemzura has molded a team that can play defense and win points from there, which is very important when it comes to knock-out games.

Chine chose to rest all their good players against Turkey, in a, let’s call it, “vow for victory” at the eight-finals. Yi Jianlian, Zhizhi Wang and Liu Wei didn’t play at all against Turkey, while Sun Yue played 10 minutes less than his regular time (he didn’t play during the first 9 minutes of the game, but then Donewald was forced to put him in, as his team had scored only 2 points till then) and Shipeng Wang played for 3 minutes only.

China is facing this game as a chance to advance to the quarterfinals and they will give their best to make it happen. It’s up to the Lithuanian players to show them that they can’t do it.  I believe Lithuania will advance to the quarterfinals as they are better, tougher and more talented.  

Then the game against Argentina or Brazil will be a very tough challenge for the team, as Lithuania won’t be the favorite. But China comes first and we’ll talk about quarterfinals after that. The game against China is “work to be done”, is a job that Lithuanians must finish. And I believe they will.

Till next time,
Think basketball,
Nikos Kousoulis