Žalgiris table-toppers
Lithuanian side Žalgiris made it three wins out of three in the EuroLeague as they beat Crvena Zvezda 75-69 in Belgrade.
Žalgiris have now won three successive away matches as they’ve yet to play at home so far this season.
Crvena Zvezda – Zalgiris 69-75. Zalgiris takes third win in a row on the road. Now let’s fill @ZalgirioArena on Thursday! 💚 pic.twitter.com/stIFgHODts
— BC Zalgiris Kaunas (@bczalgiris) October 13, 2020
It was level after the first quarter at 19-19 the Lithuanian champions then took a six-point lead into half-time.
With a quarter of the match remaining, Žalgiris led by just two points and saw out the win with Lukas Lekavicius coming off the bench to score 16 important points. Joffrey Lauvergne also contributed with 12 points and eight assists.
Lekavicius quotes
Lekavicius was pleased with his side’s display, and how they dealt with a tough opponent.
He said: “Like I said at half-time they will come back with double energy like we saw, but we responded well and we won the game.
Our main goal was to play physically because we know this team very well and they play physically every year. The EuroLeague is like that, every game is like a final to us. We are a small team and we’re trying to win every game.”
Efes off the mark
Meanwhile, in the other two matches to be played on Tuesday, Anadolu Efes registered their first win of the season against Alba Berlin 93-72.
Tibor Pleiß scored 23 points for the Turkish side, succeeding with 8 out of his 10 two-point attempts and scoring all seven of his free-throws. He also managed six rebounds. It was his highest ever score in an Efes shirt.
.@AnadoluEfesSK is off and RUNNING! pic.twitter.com/SSyKXoGZ5m
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) October 13, 2020
Also, Efes made 28 assists in their win, the highest by any team this season in the EuroLeague. They also limited Alba to just one field goal in the first five minutes. Alba Berlin are bottom of the table, without a win this season.
Barcelona win
Barcelona bounced back with a win after last week’s defeat against Zenit, beating Valencia 71-66 at La Fonteta. Rolando Šmits top-scored for Barcelona with a career-best 15 points. The match turned with 16 points scored by Barcelona without reply, as they went 44-43 down to 59-44 up.
Playing with @Nick_Calathes15 must be a dream for all BIG men!
He will find you, this time @Brandon_Davies0 hammers it home ⚒️#7DAYSMagic pic.twitter.com/J3UinXnM8W
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) October 13, 2020