The second day of the men’s OIympic basketball tournament kicked off with Jonas Valanciunas and the promising Lithuanian team facing off against the host country Brazil. Expectations are high for Lithuania in Rio. Their recent international showings have been very strong, winning silver in Eurobasket in both 2013 and 2015 with their squad being bolstered by a strong youth program that has recently produced Valanciunas, 2016 1st round pick Domantas Sabonis and recent New York Knicks signee Mindaugas Kuzminskas. Brazil’s recent record has been a little bit spottier but their squad does feature a fair amount of NBA-level talent and their significant home court advantage should keep them from being an easy out for most teams.
Early on in the game Brazil made it very clear that if they were going to get beat Valanciunas wasn’t going to be the one to do it. Every time he rolled to the rim after setting a screen the Brazilian squad would send a second defender to the paint to sandwich him and make sure he couldn’t catch the ball. They clearly preferred giving up open outside shots over defending Valanciunas at the rim. This sounds great in theory but when your opponent shoots 21-29 in the first half on the way to a 58-29 lead a team may start to reconsider.
Lithuania saved Brazil from this predicament by trusting their ability to hold the lead early in the 2nd half and playing long stretches without either Sabonis or Valanciunas on the floor, giving the Brazil defense a break by allowing them to match up with Lithuania’s 3rd and 4th string centers. This eliminated the need to collapse on the pick and roll or double team the post and allowed them to extend their defense out to bother the Lithuanian shooters which in turn allowed them to eat into the large Lithuanian lead, eventually closing to 4 points with 2 minutes left to play before a timely three point play from Sabonis extended it to three possessions and solid free throw shooting down the stretch kept the game out of reach.
Even though the victory wasn’t as convincing as it should have been there were a lot of positives for Lithuania. Their hot shooting on the open looks created by Valanciunas’ gravity should give future opponents pause if they were planning on packing the paint on defense. The team is normally carried by their frontcourt but got some solid outside shooting from Renaldas Seibutis and a great overall game from veteran guard Mantas Kalnietis, both of which bode well for their ability to play a great all around game going forward. Their defense was also solid when they were playing their regular rotation and not diving deep into the bench with a big lead.
For his first foray into Olympic competition the young Sabonis acclimated himself very well when given the ball near the rim. His outside shot was suspect, making high-low action with Valanciunas difficult, but when he got the opportunity to score in the post he was impressive. Early on he scored on this impressive post up:
Domantas Sabonis scoring with contact for Lithuania vs Brazilian big man in #Rio2016 Olympics@Dsabonis11 #ZagUp pic.twitter.com/V3eksh9rly
— Gonzaga Guru (@ZagsGuru) August 7, 2016
Then hit Brazil with the drop step to a left handed layup:
Domantas Sabonis with that fancy footwork along with an AND-1 as Lithuania dominates Brazil. @Dsabonis11 is a beast pic.twitter.com/3vTZumsge3
— Gonzaga Guru (@ZagsGuru) August 7, 2016
But perhaps most impressive of all was this three point play to end a long Lithuanian scoreless drought and keep the game out of reach:
It would have been nice to see more Valanciunas but it was a great game that should help set the tone for Lithuania going forward. They’ll pound it inside when they have space, bomb from outside when they don’t and will hopefully ride one of the more balanced rosters in the tournament to a medal spot. With Canada not making it to the games having three Raptors on the podium when it’s all said and done would be a nice consolation prize.
