They are who we thought they were. Zalgiris Kaunas and Paris Basketball had clear identities coming into the regular season Euroleague finale. In Kaunas, they both delivered extremely on-brand displays as the Lithuanian club punched its playoff ticket. Emmet Ryan on a most watchable battle.
Moses Wright is going to get most of the love here. That’s unsurprising. The real shock was how games elsewhere impacted this one and shifted the playoff landscape considerably. The fans in Kaunas had an extra reason for their thunderclap on Friday night.
Oh man Moses Wright
Let’s allow the boxscore to do the work here. Moses Wright had 16 points on 6 of 7 shooting, a whopping 18 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. The big guy was an absolute beast in this one and an all-round difference maker for Zalgiris Kaunas.
The thing is, it’s not even surprising at this stage. Much as Sylvain Fransciso has been a serious contender for Euroleague MVP, Wright has arguably taken a bigger step forward this season. Having averaged 13 minutes a game with Olympiacos the past two seasons, the big splash by Zalgiris for him felt a little bit risky.
It has paid off tremendously. Wright finishes his third Euroleague season with stellar numbers. He’s the man in the middle with 23 minutes a game and he’s backed that up with 13.2 points and 6.6 rebounds on average. He won’t make the All Euroleague teams, I’m guessing here, but he’s going to be in the conversation and deservedly so.
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They are who we thought they were
Considering how high they finished in the standings, it feels a bit of a backhanded compliment to say Zalgiris Kaunas were a league-pass team in Euroleague this season. The thing is, the way their games tend to go means they have been ultra reliable for casual viewers.
Friday night was no different. There was plenty of offensive excellence, the individual brilliance of Moses Wright, and the mandatory heart attack for fans late. With rare exceptions, Zalgiris rarely make it easy for themselves or their opponents.
Credit though to Paris Basketball. Considering they had nothing to play for coming into this, they managed to make this a truly entertaining battle. Adjusting to life without TJ Shorts hasn’t been easy this season. Still, they’ve played a lot of close games and the 15-23 final record is definitely above what I expected. There is something to build on there.
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Luck be a lady tonight
The big goal for Zalgiris Kaunas coming into this was to secure sixth spot. A win over Paris Basketball and they were guaranteed an automatic place in the playoffs. They didn’t make it easy for themselves but they did it.
So, of course things elsewhere broke about as favourably as possible. AS Monaco played arguably their best game of the season to utterly dominate Hapoel Tel Aviv. The much troubled Monagesque side will continue its journey in the play-ins but that result means Zalgiris moved up to fifth.
That has them facing the reigning champions Fenerbahce. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, Fener coach Sarunas Jasikevicius used to be head coach of Zalgiris. The Turkish giants have also hit a rough patch of late form wise. The Kaunas side will surely feel it can spring an upset in the best of five series. That, of course, is a tale for another day.
*I’m aware the pic at the top is Tubelis but we don’t have a pic of Moses at the moment.