Big team effort once again ties the series for Zalgiris 0
Zalgiris confidently cruised past Lietuvos Rytas even without a single coach on the sideline. The side from Kaunas was fired up from the very first minute and led the game for the most part to take a 83:70 (20:16, 21:12, 19:23, 23:19) home victory at the end. The best-of-seven series are tied at 2-2 now and the next game will be played in Vilnius on Monday evening.
Dainius Salenga had to take the responsibilities of the coach, but all of his teammates were involved in the talks during time outs.
The hosts used an 8:4 second quarter run, which was topped by Aleksandar Capin’s basket, to increase their lead to double-digits at 28:18. Zalgiris’ lead kept on growing and reached 15 points in the last minutes of the first half.
Lietuvos Rytas found inner strength to cut the deficit to eight points (40:48), but this was pretty much all they could manage as the home team answered with a 7:0 run and brought the gap to 15 points again at 55:40.
The visitors from the capital couldn’t get closer than eight points again and the energetic Zalgiris held a 13-point lead as the final buzzer sounded.
Zalgiris played perfect defense denying one of Lietuvos Rytas’ leaders Martynas Gecevicius any space on offense. The guard finished the game with only five points and making only 1-of-8 shots from the field after averaging 21,3 points in the first three games.
Marcus Brown led Zalgiris both emotionally and with his game scoring 17 points, Dainius Salenga, who found a new role in team, finished the game with 13 as Martynas Pocius and Travis Watson both added 10, with the latter adding 11 rebounds. Tadas Klimavicius, Mario Delas and Aleksandar Capin all contributed with 9 points each.
Igor Milosevic had a team-high 14 points for Lietuvos Rytas, but didn’t control the game at all often playing too selfish and hot-headed. Arturas Jomantas, Aron Baynes and Steponas Babrauskas all collected 10 points for the visitors.
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