Alba’s Maodo Lo (re) against Lukas Lekavicius of Zalgiris Kaunas Photo: City Press GmbH
By Nicolas Sowa
Alba Berlin suffered the next defeat in the Euroleague. On Tuesday evening, the Bundesliga basketball team lost at home in front of 8,113 spectators to the top Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas by a narrow margin of 63:66 (27:33).
After the 20th bankruptcy in the 27th Euroleague game of the season, Alba remains at the bottom of the table. The best Berlin throwers were Maodo Lo, Luke Sikma and Jaleen Smith with ten points each.
Both defensive lines dominated from the start and so there were only a few baskets to marvel at. Both teams were literally wearing themselves out with their defensive work, so that there was hardly any flow of the game.
Alba was able to take a 12:9 lead at least for a short time in the middle of the first period. But that didn’t last long. Because the guests, who were loudly supported by numerous supporters in the hall, now came into play better.
Ben Lammers tries to get a basket against two players from Zalgiris Kaunas Photo: City Press GmbH
Alba played very risky offensively, but that mostly ended in losing the ball. The Berliners found it very difficult to find good throwing positions at all. And so the misjudgment festival continued. Apart from a short lead at the beginning (16:15), the hosts were always behind in the second quarter. Alba scored just a meager 27 points in the first half.
It got a little better after the change of sides. The hosts fought back and took a 41:39 lead again in the middle of the third quarter. Every ball was fought for in this cramped game.
The lead then switched back and forth in the final section. The decision came with 1.8 seconds to go when Rolanfds Smits scored for Zalgiris to make it 63-66.