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Lithuania NT 2012
#21
After watching the refs in these international meets I don't want to hear S#@! about how USA gets calls wah wah wah. Thats just a cop out! Barea was getting murdered. Hit on the head as he was attempting layups. It was bad both ways but yeah Crying about American favortism is weak. PR didn't execute well in the final moments. Lietuva had poise. I believe in Saras. Congrats Lietuva!
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#22
Quote:After watching the refs in these international meets I don't want to hear S#@! about how USA gets calls wah wah wah. Thats just a cop out! Barea was getting murdered. Hit on the head as he was attempting layups. It was bad both ways but yeah Crying about American favortism is weak. PR didn't execute well in the final moments. Lietuva had poise. I believe in Saras. Congrats Lietuva!

There were definitely some hard fouls in that game but for the most part the refs were blowing their whistle whenever they pleased at both ends of the court. Are you implying that the refs should have been calling more fouls in favor of Barea? Ohmy They removed the bigs from both teams from being able to influence this game (Valanciunas, Javtokas, Ramos and Santiago).

The point above actually raises a good question. Songaila played more minutes as the C than anybody else tonight and to be fair to him he did a solid job. However, given that Valanciunas and Javtokas were non-factors I would strongly consider replacing Songaila with Motiejunas in London if Lithuania qualifies. Kemzura won't do it but it would give Lithuania more insurance in case the same thing happens against a team with a deeper front court.
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#23
So it looks like Lithuania is just planning one final tune up game before London against Russia in Moscow on the 22nd. I don't understand that. It looks like they're on vacation in Palanga at the moment, I mean they are "training". I hope they are having fun building their sand castles. Who does anything productive in Palanga?

Caracas was a great opportunity for Lithuania to gain some experience against teams that they do not typically play, three Americas teams including the hosts and an African team that they will face again in London. Not bad.
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#24
All joking aside, Seibutis and Jasaitis have rejoined Lietuva at their training session in Palanga. It is an interesting development considering that Kemzura said that it wouldn't be fair to take a player to Venezuela and then not to the Olympics when discussing Motiejunas' situation a few months ago (Motiejunas has now signed with the Rockets).

I think that it is pretty clear that either Seibutis or Jasaitis would likely help this team more than Dulkys at this point. We'll see if Kemzura keeps his word.
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#25
Why isn't Donatas Motiejunas with the national team?? Lietuva could use this guy against the US or anybody.

Quote:Donatas Motiejunas, Rockets: The 7-footer took advantage of the smallish Raptors in his first sanctioned game on U.S. soil. Motiejunas, the 20th overall pick in 2011, finished with an opening day-high 29 points on 11-for-13 shooting to go along with nine rebounds and two steals.

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/...daily-dime
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#26
Quote:Why isn't Donatas Motiejunas with the national team?? Lietuva could use this guy against the US or anybody.

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/...daily-dime

He wanted to sign with the Rockets as soon as it was possible on July 1. There was some nonsense rumor surfacing about Motiejunas not being insured until he signed the deal with Houston but this was false as his contract with Treviso was still valid. Nevertheless, I guess you could argue that if he were to get injured in Venezuela the Rockets may not want to sign him.

With that said he told Kemzura that he would play for Lithuania in Caracas if he was guaranteed major playing time. So Kemzura basically told him to bugger off, and rightfully so.

If he were to check his attitude I would like to see him take Songaila's spot in London to back up Valanciunas and Javtokas but this isn't going to happen so instead Motiejunas can spend the summer playing against the tough competition that is the NBA summer league. Tongue
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#27
That is disappointing. Looks like the Liths could use the young stud. Is his attitude really that bad??
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#28
I'm really looking forward to see Motiejunas and Valanciunas. Both players are extremly talented and will cause a lot of problems for a lot Power Forwards and Centers.
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#29
Quote:That is disappointing. Looks like the Liths could use the young stud. Is his attitude really that bad??

I don't think so but who knows. He really wanted to play in the NBA so if the national team might have jeopardized that opportunity then it's his choice. Demanding playing time from Kemzura was just plain stupid, albeit maybe just naive. Especially considering there are so many seasoned veterans in contention. Doing so made things easy for Kemzura.
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#30
Javtokas injured his leg and won't be playing in London. Kemzura named Antanas Kavaliauskas as his replacement.
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#31
Jasaitis and Seibutis are in, Delininkaitis and Dulkys are out! Kemzura was full of it a few months ago but I love the switch. This opens up the court a lot more for Lithuania.

I wish Motiejunas was on this team to take some of the pressure off of Jonukas. I don't know anything about Kavaliauskas but this could have been the coming out party for the next generation of Lithuanian bigs. Motiejunas isn't a center but I would say the same about Songaila and as we learned from the Americans the Olympics are about positionless basketball. Kemzura should have swallowed his pride on this one.
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#32
Nothing Earth shattering but Jonukas signed with the Raptors. I like his route to the NBA so much more than that of Motiejunas. Spending the summer going up against guys like Chandler, Seraphin, Scola and potentially the Gasols & Nene is so much better than the fringe players that make up the summer league.
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#33
Quote:Nothing Earth shattering but Jonukas signed with the Raptors. I like his route to the NBA so much more than that of Motiejunas. Spending the summer going up against guys like Chandler, Seraphin, Scola and potentially the Gasols & Nene is so much better than the fringe players that make up the summer league.

Are you sure about that? He won't play all of those teams right. He may not get a lot of playing time either.
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#34
Quote:Are you sure about that? He won't play all of those teams right. He may not get a lot of playing time either.

Huh? Valanciunas is now the go to man for Lithuania. The only things that could keep him out of action are foul trouble or injury. Barring either of those happening, he'll get the lion's share of the minutes. I do worry about his ability to stay out of foul trouble for extended periods of time.

He will definitely play against Chandler, Seraphin and Scola as they are all in Group A which is why I listed them first. He could play against the Gasols or Nene if Lithuania makes it out of the group.
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#35
Lithuania will play Iceland on 24 July in Vilnius. This isn't the greatest competition in the world but for the new guys it is important to have another warm up game before the Olympics. I'm happy that they made this happen.
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#36
Russia just slaughtered Lithuania 101-79 in Moscow.
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#37
Lithuania beat Iceland 101-51 today in Vilnius. Not exactly the highest caliber team but I think that it was important for Kavaliauskas, Seibutis and Jasaitis to get some more playing time before the Olympics. Kavaliauskas had a big game with 16 points against a very weak Icelandic interior defense. It was also important for Lithuania to head to London on a positive note.
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#38
The play of the game.

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#39
Absolutely horrible performance by Lithuania at both ends of the court. They were totally ill prepared and looked like they don't belong in the Olympics.

They turned the ball over way too much, they never moved the ball on offense and tried to create all of their shots off of isolation. On defense they allowed Argentina to run their will all over Lithuania.

There is really nothing positive to say. Kleiza made some nice shots and had a decent game but many of his shots were again off of isolation and to be honest they were low percentage shots that he happened to hit. Really it was just an abysmal game.

It is great to face an elimination game on Day 2 of group play but that's where Lithuania finds themselves. They must beat Nigeria on Tuesday or they can get straight back on the plane to Vilnius.
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#40
Wow, definitely wasn't expecting Lithuania to get man-handled like that. Argentina is amazing, their average age as a team is pretty high, but at least in this game it didn't show at all?

Lietuva better not underestimate Nigeria like we did, or else they may go through the same shameful process Tongue Crazy
[Image: paok0bw.gif]
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