The top two Lithuanian clubs will not play any LKL regular season home games next in 2012/13 season except the clashes between themselves that will most likely decide first seed for the playoffs.
Lietuvos Rytas and Zalgiris had an exhausting season participating in no less than five different tournaments/leagues (Euroleague/Eurocup, LKL, LKF Cup, VTB United League and BBL). Eventually Rytas skipped LKF Cup Final Four but the club from Vilnius still played a huge amount of games, just as Zalgiris did.
Following Euroleague’s decision to expand Top 16 stage from six to fourteen games as well as VTB United League’s expansion both Rytas and Zalgiris were looking ahead to an even tougher season with over 80 games.
The idea of skipping LKL regular season to reduce the number of game has even surfaced. However, it was decided not to opt-out of the regular season but rather play away games only with the exception of the games between Zalgiris and Rytas that will feature home and away battles.
The two Lithuanian giants usually face no serious competition from other LKL teams apart from each other. This past season Zalgiris finished first with a 21-1 record losing one away game against Siauliai. Rytas got beat twice by Zalgiris and suffered an away defeat against Rudupis as well as a shocking home loss to Kedainiai Triobet.
Yet the above mentioned results had no impact on the LKL Finals as the usual suspects met for the 14th time in a row.
