Sarunas Jasikevicius: 'If we hadn't played in Kaunas, I would have been ejected' / News - Basketnews.com

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Zalgiris Kaunas put the brakes on FC Barcelona, which had a 6-game winning streak before facing the Lithuanian powerhouse. After the loss against EuroLeague's bottom team, Sarunas Jasikevicius congratulated Lithuania with its Independence Restoration Day but admitted that his team is in poor shape.

Player of the Game EFF 33 Edgaras Ulanovas Points 16 Accuracy 3-6 Rebounds 9 Assists 0

"Congratulations to Jure, Zalgiris, and Lithuania Independence Restoration Day to Lithuanians," Jasikevicius congratulated the opponents. "Speaking of the game, I was expecting something similar (from what we've seen). We are in a poor form after Copa del Rey."

"We try to wake the players up, but after the Cup, we can feel that players are relaxed and lack of desire to fight. It kind of makes sense, but the faces on the bench tell a lot. We see it. We lost to Valencia, and I felt that the team wasn't hurt by that. That was a very bad sign.

We try to change it, but there's no time for practice or rest as our schedule in March is a disaster. Zalgiris were more motivated.

Two episodes of Nebo hit even me in the head. He was hungry, while my players were not. In this situation, I missed leadership from players. The loss is painful, but even worse is how the team reacted. The locker room is relaxed.

I didn't like that Zalgiris shot 23 free throws in the fourth quarter. I have no problems talking about it. I probably would have been ejected if we had played in another place than Kaunas.

However, I didn't want to do it in front of my family and take away the spotlight from Zalgiris victory, which they deserved," Jasikevicius concluded his long comment after the game.

Asked to be more specific about the refereeing, Jasikevicius said that it affected players from both teams.

"At some moment, both teams' players were out of the rhythm. 23 free throws in the fourth quarter… I don't know. If we hadn't played in Kaunas, I would have left the game earlier," Barcelona's head coach noted.

FC Barcelona / Schedule

Zalgiris Kaunas FC Barcelona91-84 FC Barcelona Crvena Zvezda Belgrade03-1820:00

Speaking of Zalgiris, Jasikevicius said that the victory in King Mindaugas Cup was a huge boost for his former team.

"They won the Cup, and the pressure went down. There was a lot of stress and pressure at the beginning of the season. We can add coach change, injuries, other things. They needed to win the Cup.

The whole team is calmer, they understand what the head coach wants. However, with all due respect to Zalgiris, they made 22 turnovers. In some moments, we looked like little children. Some players cannot play the way they did. They must contribute more.

It's difficult to find positives, except for Laprovittola and Jokubaitis. Even Mirotic, who had a marvelous game, was struggling in the fourth quarter," Jasikevicius continued.

Before the game, Jasikevicius was applauded by the home crowd, and the 46-year-old admitted that such reception always makes him happy.

"I was nervous, too. I wanted the game to start as soon as possible. I'm very thankful, but when the game started, I tried to do my job. I started doing that after Fuenlabrada's game, where we played poorly again.

We need to change the dynamics. It might look nice because we are leaders in the standings, but the team can fall apart really quickly," Jasikevicius noted.

In the end, Jasikevicius was also asked about the lack of comments from other EuroLeague figures or coaches, but the Lithuanian said that it's not fair to put pressure on people because of their choice whether to speak on Ukrainian war topic or not.

"Everyone who doesn't say anything is being made some sort of an enemy. Since Sabonis didn't say anything, everyone started to think that this was some kind of problem.

Do we have democracy or not? If the person doesn't want to speak, why would he need to? We get it; the whole situation in Ukraine is horrible. But if the person doesn't want to speak on the topic, why would we need to force them?" Jasikevicius finished his answer with a question.

Finally, Jasikevicius was asked whether EuroLeague asked the head coaches about their thoughts on what needs to be done regarding the standings format decisions for Russian teams.

However, Jasikevicius emphasized once again that head coaches' voices are barely heard.

"No, our voices are not heard. Many (people) don't pay attention to us. At the beginning of the pandemic, no one asked for our opinion. Later, EuroLeague apologized to us for not asking. I don't get it.

When something needs to be done, the head coach needs to sort everything from diet to travel plans. I'm responsible for everything – diet and so on. But when the decisions are being made, no one asks us. We are disappointed. There were some apologies, but then no one asked us again. It is what "it is," Jasikevicius concluded.

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