Yesterday my favorite basketball team Kauno Žalgiris played against Olympiacos Piraeus. This team had beaten Žalgiris many times in a row. So it was about damn time for my favorite team to get a victory against the greek basketball giant. And what a game it was...In the first quarter it seemed that that referees were completely blind so our coach had use to protest two calls very soon. This meant that he could no longer use reviews for referees calls in the rest of the game. Despite this Žalgiris fought very well. They could not stop one of Olympiacos leaders Evan Fournier. But at the same time Oly were not able to stop our guards- Francisco and Nigel Williams-Goss. So neither team was able to break away too far. In went back and fourth. Few times Oly had gained the advantage of 10+ points. But each time Žalgiris managed to come back to the game. In the end 40 minutes were not enough to decide the victor- both teams went into overtime. But additional few minutes ended in a tie as well. So teams had to fight in a second overtime. This time Žalgiris proved to be stronger and won at the same time ending a curse of losing streak to Olympiacos. This victory is very important in several ways. The regular season is ending soon so every win is precious and vital. At this moment we are in great position in 5 place of the standings of Euroleague. I still believe that with a bit of luck we could end regular season within top 4. Most fans are more pessimistic and think that ending in top 6 would be nearly impossible. The higher we will end up the better will be our odds in playoffs. This team really seems good enough to reach final 4...as long as they will stay healthy. But perhaps even more important is that achieving something like final 4 this season could prove to our leader Francisco that he can reach the top of Euroleague with Žalgiris and that he doesn't need to leave the team next season. As long as Žalgiris proves that it can be a serious contender and pays Francisco good salary we could still have a chance of keeping him in the future. We have to keep Francisco at all costs. But just money is not enough. We have to prove that he can fight for title if he will stay in our team. So achieving the maximum in this season would make a foundation to future seasons as well...
