Lauvergne inspires Zalgiris to thrash Khimki 24

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.