Jasikevicius: “ASVEL brings athleticism and aggressiveness to the game” 1

ASVEL Villeurbanne started off their season with two surprising wins against Greek powerhouses, and is heading to Kaunas for Game 4 of the EuroLeague regular season. Zalgiris faces the challenge with a depleted backcourt, as Alex Perez hasn’t practiced since last Saturday, while Rokas Jokubaitis suffered an injury just yesterday.

While the latter will surely miss Friday night’s game, Alex Perez should be a game-time decision. Despite that, Coach Jasikevicius does not expect too much help from the Mexican guard.

“We still have two point guards. For one game, if nothing happens, we should be ok. Lekavicius and Walkup are kind of different, too. It is how it is. There’s no time to cry about it.”

Zalgiris achieved two victories last week, taking a home win against Real Madrid and one on the road against Rytas.

“It was a very solid game against Real Madrid. From both the tactical standpoint, from our patience, from knowing where and what to give away. Against Rytas, it wasn’t a good game at all. They didn’t punish us in a lot of situations. They created a lot of good shots and could have really punished us. Again, it is a process, you can’t pay too much attention to the things that happened last week. But a step forward was taken. That’s what’s important.”

While ASVEL’s top man in both victories against Olympiakos and Panathinaikos was big man Tonye Jekiri, Jasikevicius stresses that he won’t be the main accent of his team’s defense.

“I think a lot of what he does is from the guards. He isn’t a very back-to-the-basket type of player. Our priority is about the guards. Overall, they bring a lot of athleticism and aggressiveness to the game. We have to match their physicality. We need to be patient and play our own brand of basketball. One with a lot of options, a lot of ball movement. With a lot of pick-and-roll. The more you play it, the better your chances are to punish them.”