Rimas Kurtinaitis accused Kenan Bajramovic of being too selfish
The more experienced side defeated the youthful and energetic Perlas' side 89:61 (20:12, 22:17, 23:9, 24:23) to be the first to guarantee a place in the semifinals.
Lietuvos Rytas raced ahead 17:6 and didn't provide any hopes of a comeback for Perlas. The Euroleague team mounted an 18:2 run to further increase their lead to 60:31 later on in the game.
Today's winners played without key striking power in Arturas Jomantas, Milko Bjelica, Aron Baynes and Igor Milosevic.
The defending champions will face either Neptunas or Juventus, who are ahead 1-0 in the best-of-three series, in the semis.
Kenan Bajramovic was the only foreigner playing in the game and scored 17 points for a game-high, but got criticised strongly by his own coach after the game.
"I didn't like the quality of our game and Kenan Bajramovic was especially disappointing. We tend to play better with Lithuanians on the court rather than foreigners, as they usually are playing for themselves, not for the team. They are out of control and that same Igor Milosevic cannot control the game," said Rimas Kurtinaitis. "The foreigners aren't listening to what I say. This will not do for me. Even though we're up by 30 points, I won't sit calmly if I see that something's wrong. They will either listen to what I say or won't play at all."
Simas Buterlevicius had a very decent game with 16 points, Jonas Valanciunas collected 15 and Donatas Zavackas added 12 for Lietuvos Rytas.
"Jonas Valanciunas is also playing pretty
similarly compared to the foreign players, but he's just a kid, he's only seventeen and that's pretty
much explainable. He's finding it difficult to play within defensive and
offensive schemes," Lietuvos Rytas coach told.
Eimantas Bendzius finished scoring 13 for Perlas, Lukas Brazdauskis had 11 and Saulius Kulvietis netted 10.
