An exciting clash of the EuroLeague: Zalgiris Kaunas – Virtus Bologna
Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas will host today the EuroLeague Round 3 game between Zalgiris and Virtus Bologna.
Zalgiris lost its first two games of the season, but the team from Lithuania didn’t disappoint. They were very close to upsetting Maccabi in Tel Aviv in Round 1, losing by just one point. In Round 2, they played again away from home against one of the hottest teams in the league, Olympiacos, and besides the second quarter, the team coached by Kazys Maksvytis was a very difficult opponent for the Greeks.
Maksvytis, who is also the coach of the Lithuanian National Team, took the Zalgiris job in April and will have a difficult job this season. The team looks better than last season, but almost every team improved in the summer and the target for Zalgiris will probably be to avoid the last place in the standings at the end of the regular season. Ignas Brazdeikis seems to be an awesome addition to the team, averaging 14.5 points in the first two games even with a poor percentage so far from the three-point line. Former Barca forward Rolands Smits and guard Keenan Evans are also good additions to this team.
On the other side, Virtus Bologna returned to the EuroLeague after a long time (they last played in the EuroLeague in the 2007-2008 season). After winning the EuroCup last season, coach Sergio Scariolo led the Spanish National Team to the EuroBasket gold medal, a very unexpected result in which the Italian coach was a key factor.
Virtus has an experienced roster, with players like Marco Belinelli, Milos Teodosic, Daniel Hackett, Iffe Lundberg or Jordan Mickey and also some youngsters who seem to be ready to impress in the league, like Nico Mannion or Alessandro Pajola. The bianconeri didn’t play for a long time in the EuroLeague, however, their roster and great coaching staff definitely make them a playoff contender and a tough team to beat in the quarterfinals.
Zalgiris and Virtus have a very different styles of play. Zalgiris scored a lot more points in the first two games than Virtus (avg. of 81.5 vs 66), while the Italians are better on defense, conceding just 73 points on average vs Zalgiris’s 87. It’s clear that Virtus can score much more than they did at the beginning of this season and even in a tough environment like the Zalgirio Arena, they should score more than 66 points and they are the favourites to win the game.
Written by Imre Halasz
Photo credit: Virtus Segafredo Bologna
