2020-21Regular SeasonRound 18
January 08, 2021 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 ZALGIRIO ARENA

Lauvergne inspires Zalgiris to thrash Khimki

Joffrey Lauvergne produced the best performance of his career to power Zalgiris Kaunas to a 102-75 home win over Khimki Moscow Region on Friday night. Lauvergne scored 29 points on 13-of-14 two-point shooting and hauled down 9 rebounds to give Zalgiris its sixth consecutive victory, improving to 11-7 while Khimki stays in last place at 2-16. Khimki initially competed well and used a 2-16 run to establish a 32-43 lead before half-time, but Zalgiris fought back after the break and took total control with 11-2 and 16-0 runs, winning the third quarter 39-13 to put the outcome beyond doubt. Lauvergne’s spectacular performance was complemented by 18 points and 8 assists for Marius Grigonis, and 14 points for Nigel Hayes. Khimki was paced by Alexey Shved with 22 points and 8 assists, while Devin Booker had 19 points and 7 rebounds.

Zalgiris focused its early efforts inside, scoring through Lauvergne, Grigonis and Arturas Milaknis, while Shved got Khimki moving with a three-pointer. Lauvergne and Booker traded alley-oops, making it 8-7 midway through the opening period. Shved twice dished for Sergey Karasev to score, but Lauvergne continued to dominate inside with 7 more points, stretching the lead to 17-11. Jordan Mickey’s triple was answered by Hayes before Shved scored 6 straight points including a four-point play. Augustine Rubit had the first quarter’s last word with a buzzer-beating dunk for a 22-20 lead. Martinas Geben started the second quarter scoring, but another Mickey threeball and Vyacheslav Zaytsev’s layup-and-one kept Khimki close, 28-27, despite 4 points from Hayes. An inside score from Grigonis was bettered by Shved from deep, and 4 straight points from Booker gave Khimki the lead, 30-34. Another Lauvergne alley-oop was answered by two more scores from Booker, and a deep three from Stefan Jovic made it 32-43 after a 2-16 run. Lukas Lekavicius got Zalgiris back on the board, before Lauvergne and Booker both scored twice inside to make it 39-48 at the break.

Lauvergne opened the third quarter with another alley-oop, and Thomas Walkup penetrated to score before Grigonis struck from deep for a quickfire 7-0 run. Booker responded with a powerful dunk but Milaknis drove the baseline to layup and Lauvergne scored again to tie the game, 50-50. Jovic and Walkup exchanged deep strikes and Hayes sent Zalgiris back in front from beyond the arc. A three-point play from Lauvergne and a transition three from Grigonis made it 64-55, before two more scores from the unstoppable Lauvergne and free throws capped a 18-0 run, making it 74-55. Errick McCollum finally scored Khimki’s first field goal in nearly five minutes, before Lekavicius made it 78-61 after three quarters. McCollum and Mickey offered some resistance early in the fourth, but Grigonis twice struck from long-range to extend the lead beyond 20 points. A pair of dunks from Geben made it 96-72, and Walkup scored in transition before Rokas Jokubaitis took Zalgiris into triple figures from the foul line, and teenager Marek Blazevic completed the scoring with his first career field goal.

Lauvergne approaches Scola record

With 13 of his 14 field goals converted, Joffrey Lauvergne registered the second-highest number of two-pointers with just one miss in EuroLeague history. Only Luis Scola has scored more two-pointers with a solitary missed shot, making 15-of-16 for Tau Ceramica against Benetton Basket in the 2005 playoffs.


Great offensive numbers for Zalgiris

The home team had only made 1 of its 5 three-point attempts at half-time, but put that right by going 6-of-12 from beyond the arc after the break. Zalgiris also dished 25 assists, and converted 31 two-point shots – its highest since 2014.

Zalgiris steps up on D

Another key to the outcome was a big improvement on defense after half-time from Zalgiris. Khimki scored 48 points in the first half but could only manage 27 after the break, being held scoreless for more than 4 minutes midway through the third quarter.

Next round

Khimki will tip off the double round week at home to FC Barcelona next Tuesday, while Zalgiris is also in Moscow to face CSKA the following night.

Marius Grigonis - Zalgiris Kaunas - EB20
Friday, January 8, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; PANTHER, ANNE; TRAWICKI, TOMASZ
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas22173924
Khimki Moscow Region20281314
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas223978102
Khimki Moscow Region20486175
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WALKUP, THOMAS 19:39 7 2/5 1/4   1 4 5 4 2       2 5 15
1 BLAZEVIC, MAREK 1:22 2 1/1     1   1               3
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 20:21 8 3/5   2/2   1 1 4   3     2 5 11
10 HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL 25:13 14 1/2 2/3 6/6 1 2 3 1 1   1   3 4 19
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 16:02 4     4/4   2 2 3         3 2 8
16 LUKOSIUNAS, KAROLIS 4:00     0/2                       -2
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 18:45 4 2/3 0/1     1 1             1 4
23 GEBEN, MARTINAS 9:01 6 3/4     4 4 8 1       1   1 14
24 RUBIT, AUGUSTINE 14:16 6 2/5   2/4 1 2 3     1     4 2 1
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS 21:34 4 1/4 0/2 2/2   3 3 2 1     1 2 1 3
40 GRIGONIS, MARIUS 27:05 18 3/4 4/5     1 1 8 1 3     3 1 21
77 LAUVERGNE, JOFFREY 22:42 29 13/14   3/3 2 7 9 2   1     3 3 38
Team           1   1     1          
Totals 200:00 102 31/47 7/17 19/21 11 27 38 25 5 9 1 2 22 25 135
        66% 41.2% 90.5%
Head coach: SCHILLER, MARTIN
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Khimki Moscow Region
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SHVED, ALEXEY 37:18 22 1/5 5/13 5/5 1   1 8   2   1 2 3 17
3 MCCOLLUM, ERRICK 14:56 8 1/2 1/1 3/4 1 1 2     1     2 3 8
7 KARASEV, SERGEY 12:47 4 2/2 0/2   1   1     1     2    
8 ZAITCEV, VIACHESLAV 18:58 3 1/2 0/1 1/3   2 2 1 2   1   4 5 6
9 VIALTSEV, EGOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13 SHARAPOV, VLADISLAV DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
17 ODINOKOV, VLADISLAV 4:24           1 1           2   -1
18 VORONOV, EVGENY 7:50 2 1/1 0/2     1 1     2     3   -4
24 JOVIC, STEFAN 23:27 7   2/4 1/2   3 3 4 1       3 4 13
31 BOOKER, DEVIN 32:46 19 8/13   3/3 4 3 7 4 1 4 1   1 6 28
45 BERTANS, DAIRIS 16:24   0/1 0/2     1 1 1         2 1 -2
55 MICKEY, JORDAN 31:10 10 2/3 2/7     2 2     1     4   1
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 75 16/29 10/32 13/17 8 16 24 18 4 11 2 1 25 22 69
        55.2% 31.3% 76.5%
Head coach: KURTINAITIS, RIMAS

Head Coaches

SCHILLER, MARTIN
Zalgiris Kaunas

“Very happy, because we came out [after half-time] very focused with a lot of alertness and readiness, and then when we got stops it’s much easier on offense as well. Very happy with the second half defensive performance. I got on Joffrey at half-time for not contesting a shot and then saw he had already scored an enormous amount of points! He had a very good game and the main thing for me was that he, like all the others, improved his defence in the second half. That was the bottom line and I’m happy about that, and happy for him. There was no secret. The guys were upset [at half-time] with their performance defensively, they knew they could do it better, and they hit the floor with the fire of wanting to show they can do it better. It was a pride thing, they did a good job and I’m proud of them.”

“Jojo [Lauvergne] works extremely hard. From day one, he has invested a lot into his craft. He works a lot and puts a lot of effort in, and whenever he has a game like this it is really well deserved on his end.”

KURTINAITIS, RIMAS
Khimki Moscow Region
“Zalgiris is playing well. In the last five or six games they played with confidence, with satisfaction. They enjoy this game of basketball. We had problems. We were fighting not bad during a couple of quarters but the third quarter was terrible, especially in terms of energy and character. Then it was difficult. So the third quarter was the key for losing this game.”

Players

LAUVERGNE, JOFFREY
Zalgiris Kaunas

“I think we played better defense in the second half! There are some nights like this. My teammates helped me a lot and we finished with the win. To combine both is extremely nice. We wanted to win, we want to win every game and we put everything together.”

“We had a tough first half but we played amazing in the second part of the game, so we can say we are happy. It’s a nice feeling, I’m not going to lie. First, we had to win, and the better you play, the happier you are. So tonight I can say I am extremely happy! We’ve got a great atmosphere in the locker room, which is why we are playing at this level.”

GRIGONIS, MARIUS
Zalgiris Kaunas
“We can’t play like we played during the first half. When we got more aggressive, it was way easier and on offense…I don’t want to say anything but nobody [from Khimki] was helping from the weak side. I don’t want to say it was easy to play, but for sure easier than the last games.”