Zalgiris shuts down Real 68-47 14

Zalgiris Kaunas thrashed Real Madrid 68-47 at home on Thursday in a battle between former continental champions.

Zalgiris improved to 5-19 in the standings while dropping Real to 20-6. Edgaras Ulanovas paced the winners with 15 points and Josh Nebo, Joffrey Lauvergne and Lukas Lekavicius each had 10 for Zalgiris.

Walter Tavares led Real with 12 points and 12 rebounds and Vincent Poirier added 10 points.

Janis Strelnieks and Lekavicius helped Zalgiris to a double-digit lead, 18-8, late in the first quarter. Trey Thompkins stepped up for Real, but Lekavicius and Ulanovas kept the hosts out of trouble, 38-29, at halftime. Zalgiris boosted its margin to 49-37 at the end of the third quarter and an outstanding Ulanovas pushed the lead to 20 as the hosts sealed the outcome early.

Gabriel Deck got Real going with a layup in transition, which Strelnieks matched with a six-meter jumper. Tavares followed a layup with a put-back dunk, but Tyler Cavanaugh and Strelnieks soon gave Zalgiris its first lead, 7-6. Joffrey Lauvergne took over with an alley-oop layup and a mid-range jumper, which capped a 7-0 Zalgiris run. Vincent Poirier stepped up with a layup. Lekavicius, however, hit a floater and followed Paulius Jankunas’s layup with a bomb from beyond the arc, prompting Los Blancos to call timeout at 18-8. Poirier answered with a three-point play to bring the visitors within 18-11 after 10 minutes.

Niels Giffey took over with a put-back layup early in the second quarter. Poirier kept pushing Real and Thompkins struck from downtown, causing Zalgiris to stop the game at 20-16. Giffey downed a stop-and-pop jumper and even though Sergio Llull stepped up with a floater and a layup, Cavanaugh and Ulanovas answered each time with a three-point play for a 28-20 Zalgiris lead. Thompkins followed a jumper with a layup, but Strelnieks and Nebo kept the hosts in charge, 32-24. Tavares hit a jumper and Llull scored again. Lekavicius answered with a driving layup and got help from Lauvergne to establish a 38-29 Zalgiris advantage at halftime.

Tavares briefly silenced the crowd with an alley-oop slam right after the break and soon added a put-back layup for a 38-33 Real deficit. Nebo and Deck traded baskets before a red-hot Lekavicius buried a three-pointer that boosted Zalgiris’s lead to 43-35. Tavares rescued Real with a tip-in, which Cavanaugh erased with a driving layup. Arturas Milaknis banked in a running floater and Jankunas gave Zalgiris its biggest lead until then, 49-37, at the end of the third quarter.

Poirier buried a baseline jumper early in the fourth quarter. Lauvergne scored in the low post and grabbed a great bounce pass from Giffey to throw it down. Ulanovas soon added a three-pointer and a fastbreak layup that broke the game open, 58-39, with less than 6 minutes remaining. Real called a much-needed timeout but kept struggling against the hosts’ aggressive defense. Adam Hanga stepped up with a dunk but he didn’t find much help around. Meanwhile, Ulanovas insisted from beyond the arc for a 61-41 Zalgiris lead. Little changed in the final 4 minutes, as the hosts had plenty of time to celebrate a no-doubt-about-it victory.