Lieutuvos Rytas will be happy to take the underdog role, but it’s clear that the Lithuanians are not going to give up without a fight. As much of a cliché it might be, but will all start on defense for the Vilnius side as Aleksandr Trifunovic admits that the Spaniards are very dangerous offensively.
“It is a very good team, with individually strong players and an attacking mentality. Vitoria is one of those teams, who are extremely difficult to beat on the road, therefore we’ll have to focused to the maximum,” said Trifunovic. “I think we do have chances and we’re heading to Vitoria wanting to play our best game so far and hoping it would give us the win.”
Despite spending a season playing in Vitoria himself, Simas Jasaitis doesn’t put much emphasis on the fact, but points out that Caja Laboral are lethal when they’re playing fast basketball.
“We’ll have to deal with them on defense to give ourselves a chance. All we need to do is play on the defensive end like we did against Panathinaikos for the first two quarters,” Jasaitis commented, who also added this will be just a regular game for him and no emotions will be involved.
With Lietuvos Rytas leader Martynas Gecevicius out for the game, D.J. Strawberry will be expected to step up and contribute significantly to cover the painful loss. The American newcomer arrived in Lithuania only a week ago, but will play one of the key roles for Lietuvos Rytas already.
“He’s getting the hang of our game faster than expected. D.J. [Strawberry] will have to play a bigger role right from the start of the game. However, we also have some other players, who will have a chance to prove, that they’re useful to the team as well with Martynas injured,” Trifunovic explained.
A huge loss to Meridiano Alicante in the Spanish ACB might signal some problems for Caja Laboral, but it will surely bring hope to the Lietuvos Rytas camp, who will be trying not to leave things for too late in the Top 16 stage as they did in the regular season.
