The battle for the Euroleague’s playoffs is on: Zalgiris hosting Khimki
The battle for 7th and 8th places in Euroleague standings will continue in Round 27 when Zalgiris will host Khimki Moscow in a duel between two teams that are directly involved in the battle. Both teams are in a very good form as they won their last 3 Euroleague games, which means they will give everything to take an important win here.
At the beginning of 2020, Zalgiris was far away from the playoffs spots and many were thinking that the season is almost over for them. However, they got 6 wins from the last 8 Euroleague rounds and the playoffs are closer than ever. In their last meeting, they host Armani Milano in a tough encounter. They controlled almost the entire game until the last minutes of the game when the Italian team made a comeback and tied the score 91-91 to go in the overtime. There, pushed by their fans, Zalgiris won the game 105-97, securing a very important victory over another playoff contender. The main contributors of the game were: Nigel Hayes (21 points and 4 rebounds), Zach LeDay (19 points and 5 rebounds) and Thomas Walkup (18 points and 5 assists). For this upcoming game, only Marius Grigonis is out.
After recording only one win from the first seven Euroleague games of 2020, now Khimki seems that they find their rhythm, winning their last 3 games in a row against Crvena Zvezda, Milano and ASVEL Lyon. In the last game, against ASVEL, they completed a comfortable 108-79 win. The Russian team won the first quarter 35-28 and after that everything looked easier for them as they won all the quarters of the game. They scored 58% of their shots from the field and also recorded 10 steals in the game, giving some extra-possessions. Alexey Shved was huge, finishing the game with a double-double, 24 points and 13 assists in 30 minutes of play. Alongside him, Jonas Jerebko (18 points and 7 rebounds) and Devin Booker (17 points and 4 rebounds) also have great contributions. For this game, Jeremy Evans, Petr Gubanov and Timofey Mozgov are out.
In their last meeting, Khimki Moscow took an 83-74 win, thanks to Shved and Stefan Jovic who scored 25 points apiece. Looking over the rosters, neither team made any changes since their last meeting. It will be a big game in Kaunas and Zalgiris needs to defend very well against Alexey Shved and Khimki’s 3-points shooting, as they are first in the competition in three-points made per game, 11.2.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
