Vezenkov punishes Zalgiris’ trick with another MVP-level performance

THE Olympic the… he saw everything against Zalgiris, but in the end won 74-72 Gracefulness in the basket by Sasha Vezenkovlatch & mathematically their presence in the playoffs.

The “Red-Whites” won their 10th away win in the EuroLeague this year Vezenkov plays – once again – like an MVPwho are even more optimistic about the future.

The Sportish Analysis using InStat Scout the victory of the “red-whites”.

Vezhenkov did not fall into the trap of Zalgiris

Sasha Vezhenkov finished the game with 25 points on 11/16. (9/9 2-points, 2/7 3-points, 1/1 field goal), 2 assists and 2 steals in nearly 30 minutes of action. It was another MVP-level performance. More interesting, however, is how he – both he and Olympiakos – have adapted to Zalgiris’ marking trick.

The Lithuanians took an interesting approach to marking the Bulgarian striker, sending Arnas Butkevicius (1.93 m tall) on him, i.

That’s what Valencia did a couple of weeks ago when he sent (small forward) Klaver to Vezenkov and put (power forward) Webb on Papanikolaou. Why was this done? To allow the Lithuanians to limit the points scored by the Olympiakos star with moves off the ball.

There is logic behind this particular move: perimeter players are more used than power forwards to marking off players who are walking off the ball, cutting to the basket, and accepting continuous screens. When this is combined with the logic of rallies, Zalgiris hoped that in this way they will dissuade Vezenkov from Olympiakos. Turns out he was wrong.

With a smaller player in front of him, Vezenkov posted more than usual, creating an imbalance in her defense. But he didn’t stay there. Often he was the one who shielded the ball, not the one who took it and then went to the basket to get the ball and got the change he wanted, since the periphery respectively had not learned to mark the shield in such situations and Either he cut to the basket and scored, or he took a better position near the basket.

In fact, that’s exactly what he did at the stage where he made the winning basket, after passing the screen to McKissick, got the change he wanted (Dimsa fell on him instead of Butkevicius), posted and scored.

According to InStat Scout, Vezhenkov scored in the following ways:
cuts (Cuts) 8 points with 4 possessions
Post (Second leg): 6 points with 4 possessions
Forward onto (Hand to Hand Pass): 6 points in 2 possessions
Offensive rebound: 3 points in 1 possession
catch and shoot (Stopping Shooting): 2 points for 4 possessions
Here is his shot table:

Zalgiris took a calculated risk with Vezenkov. He tried to bully him, sending players like Butkevicius (mainly), Ulanovas and Brazdeikis on him to take him out of the game. This proved to be a double-edged sword as the Lithuanians paid for it in the final and the Bulgarian had punished them in the same way he had punished them all night: hitting the miss.

Playmaker Fal and Playmaker McKissick

Olympiacos could see Zalgiris trying different things in defense. Close inwards quite often. Make it difficult for him by having tall guard formations that he can hit at the perimeter with their size. Not having Kostas Sluka to break out in attack, he made sure to rely on two main axes of his game: Mustafa Fal’s gift for creating from the post and Shaquille McKissic’s ability to play vertically on the ground.

Olympiacos posted the Frenchman often and gave him options with his constant cuts to the basket. One of the reasons for this is to prevent a double team from coming. However, the main reason for this is that Fal is an excellent passer. Never was this clearer than in this particular game, where Fal dished out 7 assists and Olympiacos took 13 points from them. Overall, the “red and white” scored 16 points with shots from the field. 10 of those came from Fal’s assists. Two more from Tarik Black’s assists, who in turn finished the game with 4 assists and gave the Red-Whites 9 points. In general, Olympiacos got 22 points by supporting their center!

At the same time, Shaquille McKissick (18 points, 2 assists) was the one holding Olympiacos in the 2nd period. With Zalgiris lacking an athletic player to limit him, the American took multiple isolations in the second half and broke through their defense. McKissick scored 13 points in the second half and shared both of his assists (one each for Lountzis and Larentzakis) in the same amount of time. Overall, he was responsible for 19 out of 25 points in this span. All Zalgiris scored 17 points in the second period.

Zalgiris got the game going, it just wasn’t enough

Zalgiris is a tough nut to crack. She has the ability to destroy any game with her playstyle. The many short bodies, the good shooters, the fact that there are peripherals that post and big ones that shoot always make it dangerous, as was seen in the first round match in SEF.

The Lithuanians had 13/28 threes. They scored 21 points in catch-and-shoot situations. They saw Rolands Schmitz (18 points with 4/6 threes) hit a given weakness of the Olympiakos centers to follow the opponent high on the perimeter. Despite having only one pure playmaker (Lekavicius), they found a way to bring Dimsa (17 points) up and down in the matchup and managed to send him to his good hand (right) on offense to give him options admit. They posted all night with Ulanovas (12 points and 6 assists from which they got 18 points). They used Sluka’s absence to put more pressure on the ball.

However, Taylor’s absence deprived them of their only player with one-on-one skills. The fact that the Lithuanians attacked 14 times in isolation (one on one) and scored only 5 points is Olympiako’s credit for pushing the Lithuanians out of their comfort zone offensively. Zalgiris really took the game where they wanted it to go. It just wasn’t enough against Olympiakos. Even in an Olympiakos that played without its best creator, Kostas Sloukas.

He got another mud fight

Olympiakos was forced to Kaunas. He still had to fight another mud fight. He got dirty and ended up coming out of that fight…clean. Zalgiris is a strong team and played the match with the mentality that it was a playoff level game. However, Olympiacos faced the game in the same way.

Winning matches that go as high as 70 points and end up having big shots always helps a team’s psychology. Of course, in games judged in possession, it’s easy to say that the emotions generated depend on the end result. And that is indeed true.

At the end of the day, Olympiakos was definitely worried about the Lithuanians’ size and dynamic play. The frequent mistakes – defensive and offensive – in the fourth period, when Zalgiris came back into play, will certainly be analyzed. But the main thing for the “Red-Whites” is that they have bagged another win, which makes it easier to analyze accordingly.