Valanciunas Vs Georgia

[irgigi]

Lithuania have plaid last friendly game vs Georgia (and hardly won 88:80).

Bad news Valanciunas have played 5 minutes only and scored 2 points.
Full stats: http://www.musukrepsinis.lt/public/f...27_LTU-GEO.jpg
JV highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyuX4vlskAg

Good news - coach have announced final roster, and JV is in it.

Pretty sure JV will not be main center and he will not play much minutes. But it is not because he is bad, but because he is young and not ready. You would not expect him being starting center in Raptors this year right ? And Lithuania team is prolly better than Raptors, that's questionable though

Eurobasket will start August 31th. Official page http://www.eurobasket2011.com/en/default.asp
bookmark it
All stats should be right and posted ASAP, so we don't need to link his every game.

Some more info on Lithuania roster.
Two main centers:
Number 15 Robertas Javtokas
Number 14 Marijonas Petravicius

Number 17 Jonas Valanciunas

Point guards:
Number 5 Mantas Kalnietis, young and fast.
Number 13 Sarunas Jasikevicius, old and slow , but smart and great.

Number 13 PG is great on pick and roll and does great assists in general. JV and him combo works really well.

JV will get minutes against weaker teams and pretty sure coach will let him play in tough games, where he will need to add his bump energy in offence. Or maybe he will get his chance to crush Gasols or Kirilenka

If Italy makes it to the next round, Lithuania will face them with Bargnani
Three teams are advancing from every group.
Predictions for Italy group is Serbia and France (has 7? NBA players) will advance easy, while Germany (with Nowitzki) and Italy (with Bargnani) will fight for the last spot.
Lithuania should advance easy enough (Spain and Turkey are strong in their group, others are easy shot).

[irgigi]

Back to Valanciunas.
From what i have seen JV was in perfect shape after U19 and that's why he was crushing opponents in first LT national (LT NT)team games. Rest LT NT players was just starting to fit after summer vacation.
Now we have final result of it, JV being backup center of LTNT, while being 19.

Well.. someone say Sabonis was crashing David Robinson while being 17 ... Sabonis did. And JV would crash him as well, too bad there is no David Robinson in eurochamp

[mcHAPPY]

Back to Valanciunas.
From what i have seen JV was in perfect shape after U19 and that's why he was crushing opponents in first LT national (LT NT)team games. Rest LT NT players was just starting to fit after summer vacation.
Now we have final result of it, JV being backup center of LTNT, while being 19.

Well.. someone say Sabonis was crashing David Robinson while being 17 ... Sabonis did. And JV would crash him as well, too bad there is no David Robinson in eurochamp

I'm a little confused Robinson is a year younger than Sabonis.

[Soft Euro]

I'm excited about Valanciunas, but Sabonis was on a level of his own.

Against Robinson was in '86 I believe.

[irgigi]

I'm a little confused Robinson is a year younger than Sabonis.

True. Sabonis owned Robinson really in 1988 olympics. Doesn't matter if Robinson was younger. We are not trying to post favor Sabonis or Robinson, more like for JV really.. and hope he will be Robinson at least or Sabonis (not injured) for perfect.

[Soft Euro]

If we are talking about the 1988 semi-final Sabonis owning Robinson can't really be based upon the stats...

Robinson 23 points, 12 rebounds
Sabonis 13 points, 13 rebounds

I thought the most famous matchup was in 1986, the WC (because that was a final). Both games, btw, were won by the USA.

In 1986, statwise, Sabonis didn't dominate Robinson as well:

Robinson 20 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks
Sabonis 16 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks

Can't find assist stats, Sabonis would probably have more, but nevertheless, dominating is rewriting history.

[albertan_10]

he played 5 minutes the week before the real tournament started. you would think that if this game didn't mean anything that his coach would play his 3rd string guys more than the guys he will be counting on in the tournament. If JV isn't going to play much in the euro tournament starting in a few days then why would he have played only a few minutes? That doesn't make sense to me. I'm guessing that they didn't care as much about this game and with their 3rd string playing the game was closer than it should have been.

[Tim W.]

he played 5 minutes the week before the real tournament started. you would think that if this game didn't mean anything that his coach would play his 3rd string guys more than the guys he will be counting on in the tournament. If JV isn't going to play much in the euro tournament starting in a few days then why would he have played only a few minutes? That doesn't make sense to me. I'm guessing that they didn't care as much about this game and with their 3rd string playing the game was closer than it should have been.

For the most part, he's played well when given minutes, so I doubt the lack of minutes in this game means anything. It could be anything from wanting to rest him, to the coach wanting to look at different combination to wanting to look at a player a bit more before the tournament started. Songaila only played 14 minutes and I'm guessing he's going to be their main big man.

[Tim W.]

On a side note, it never ceases to amaze me how often players can't believe they are being called for a foul on the most obvious calls. The first time Valanciunas got fouled, in the highlights, the guy clearly whacked his elbow, but acts as if he got all ball. My problem with doing that is when there actually IS a bad call, the ref already thinks you complain about everything anyways, so isn't going to listen to you.

[Soft Euro]

While that might be true, the other way round also happens, a referee gets so many comments on his foulcalling that he starts letting fouls go, especially when it's a player from the hometeam or a star player.

[albertan_10]

For the most part, he's played well when given minutes, so I doubt the lack of minutes in this game means anything. It could be anything from wanting to rest him, to the coach wanting to look at different combination to wanting to look at a player a bit more before the tournament started. Songaila only played 14 minutes and I'm guessing he's going to be their main big man.

basically along the lines of what I was thinking too

[ezz_bee]

I'm not saying that the reffing in high school ball in Ontario will be the same as it is in europe or NBA but when I coached a team for a couple of seasons I instituted a policy of no complaining to the refs about calls. If I really thought that the ref missed a call I would approach him or her in between quarters. My experience was that although there were some bad calls, in general I found that a higher percentage/more calls went our when compared to before we instituted that policy.

Also, if you are complaining to the ref then obviously your focused (at least partially) on the play that just happened and the ref, not the play that is happening right now. It always pisses me off when I see a player yelling at a ref while the other team brings the ball down and scores on a fast break, (aka pulling a Carter). Not yelling at the ref and just getting back on defense is the better long term strategy in my experience and I'm glad that JV seems to have that attitude.

[Soft Euro]

[...] I'm glad that JV seems to have that attitude.

Not just because he is our rookie, but Valanciunas looks to have one of the best attitudes I've ever seen. He started mopping the floor when there was a wet spot. When a teammate took a hard it to the floor he was assisting the teamdoctor and checking the leg of the player to see if everything was still in the right place (or he was feeling him up which would be quite rude considering the guy was in serious pain). If for some reason he does not work out he'll probably apply to be the waterboy.

[Tim W.]

I also like how he donated his kidney to that dying boy. Shows just what kind of a person he is.

[mcHAPPY]

I also like how he donated his kidney to that dying boy. Shows just what kind of a person he is.

Of all the sarcastic replies EVER, this might top them all. lol