What about Lithuania in men's basketball? Who's in the lineup?

Template: poor man's version of Gerald Wallace

Maciulis is an alternative style of small forward. At 23 years old, Matthewulis is fairly strong at 5'98" and 98 kilograms. Doesn't shoot particularly well, but favors taking chances to perform dunks.

Matthews is not very good at attacking with the ball, dribbling is not very stable, the main scoring opportunities come from fast breaks, no ball cuts and even the front court rebounds, in addition to a large number of dunks, the basket confrontation in the shot also has a certain degree of accuracy, mainly due to the strong body. Accurate from 3-point range, but not a natural shooter.

Matthews' size also gives him an edge on defense, and he puts a lot of passion into it.

Born in Kaunas, Mathewlis was one of the best players to come out of the Sabonis Basketball School (which is also Kaunas' youth team). It's the same team that now plays for Kaunas (Zalgiris Kaunas). Played all 20 games with the team in the Euroleague last season, averaging 11.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game.

Mathiulis has the same name as a Lithuanian poet with the pen name Maironis. Some fans just call him "The Poet".

Two videos, filled with dunks and frontcourt rebounding scrimmages:

Ramunas Siskauskas

Template: a less powerful version of Paul Pierce

The comparison to Paul Pierce isn't particularly apt, as most of Siskauskas's inside scoring comes on Face breakthrough, relatively speaking back attack limited to no absolute power advantage, does not occupy a particularly large proportion. Siskauskas, known as the first small forward in Europe (European sister's introduction: /read.php?tid=233767), has a full range, proficient in a variety of ways to score, holding the ball breakthrough speed is not fast, but the power is sufficient, solid footwork, good rhythm, false moves and change of direction, and can be in a variety of confrontation to complete the final shot to score. The body condition is very good (1 meter 98, 93 kilograms).

Sometimes substitutes as an organizing guard due to very good dribbling skills, smart play and good big-picture awareness.

At 29, Siskauskas is at the peak of his career. 2007 Siskauskas led Panathinaikos to the Euroleague title (and also reached the triple crown of the domestic league, the cup and the Euroleague) with a victory over CSKA Moscow. he moved to CSKA in the summer of '07, and as a result, he helped Muscovites win the Euroleague and the Russian league again this summer. double title. Meanwhile Siskauskas got the MVP of Euroleague 07-08 with 14.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.1 steals. he was also one of the members of the Lithuanian men's basketball team that got the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics, the gold medal at the 03 European Championships, and the bronze medal at the 07 European Championships.

Set:

Marius Prekevicius

Template: poor man's version of Brent Barry

Prekevicius is a two-way point guard with a height of 1 meter 95 (6'5"). Moderately physical and good at shooting.

Prekovicius attended an American high school and played in the NCAA at the University of South Florida, where he was the team's backup scorer. He returned to Europe a year later, playing for a team in Poland before joining Siauliai, the No. 3 team in the Lithuanian league, and was just signed this summer by another traditional powerhouse, BC Lietuvos Rytas, which translates to Lithuanian Morning Post, the country's largest newspaper.

Prekovicius averaged 10.1 points and 2.2 rebounds per game for ?iauliai in the Lithuanian League last season and contributed 5.9 points and 2.2 assists per game in the Euroleague Cup.

Prekovicius was selected to the Lithuanian team after Darius Songaila left the national team with an injury.

Ksystof Lavrinovic

Darjus Lavrinovic

Template: Ksystof/poor man's version of Oku

Unlike this year's NBA draft, which featured the hotly anticipated Lopez twins, the twin brothers have a complementary one-on-one offense and one-on-one defense model, the Lithuanian twins, the Ravrinovic brothers, play like their size and looks are almost a mold.

The twins in Dalius is the older brother, 2 meters 12 (7 feet), weighing 106 kilograms (235 pounds); younger brother Ksistov is 2 meters 09 (6 feet 11 inches), weighing 108 kilograms (238 pounds).

The first thing that comes to mind when those more familiar with the Lithuanian team think of the Lavrinovic brothers is probably three-point shooting. The brothers, who play center or power forward for the team, are quite accurate in their mid-range and long-distance shooting. This year, brother Ksistov played with Italy's Montepaschi Siena in the EuroLeague, hitting 33 of 57 three-pointers in 22 games for a 57.9 percent shooting percentage that could be considered scary. The younger brother Dalius was affected by the injury, only represented Russia's UNIKS Kazan played 8 games, shooting touch has been bad, but in the 16 into 8 two games he killed the ring open, two games averaged 22 points, 12 rebounds, 2.5 blocked shots, three-point shooting 11 shot 5, but unfortunately, the final 8 games again due to injury rest.

With age and increased strength, the brothers have improved inside, with older brother Kristoff in particular already a reliable inside scoring weapon at Siena. The two have never been bad at the bottom of the interior offense or defense, but they just didn't play against enough in their early years and preferred to attack from the outside.

Defensively the two brothers did not have too colorful place, in the interior to fill the defense of the two good speed of movement and bounce can play a big role, but the strength of the confrontation on a slight disadvantage, and the speed of movement is not particularly good, in the away from the basket is still a bit of a dilemma. Relatively speaking, older brother Dalius is slightly stronger and a little more effective against the basket and on defense, while younger brother Kristoff is faster but a little less effective on defense.

Lavrinovic brothers are not the dominant inside linebacker in European basketball, the main reason is that the physical quality is good but not reach the top, in addition to basketball IQ than the Lithuanian traditional wisdom center, can only be regarded as an ordinary level.

The Ravrinovic brothers' basketball experience is quite legendary. The two brothers were less than 20 years old when they were sentenced to two years in prison for alleged rape, where they practiced one-on-one every day, and when they got out of prison, the two potential young men turned into a pair of quite skilled finished players.

Of the twins, older brother Dalius ranked behind his younger brother in importance to the national team because he suffered recurring injuries to his knee that affected his playing career, especially missing the 2003 Lithuanian European Championships, which he won. Ksystov was named to the Euroleague first team last season.

Both brothers began their careers with Alita Alytus in the Lithuanian League, with younger brother Ksistov playing for Siena in Italy (13.7 points and 4.7 rebounds in 20 minutes per game in the Italian League and 15.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.1 blocks in 20 minutes per game in the Euroleague), while older brother Dalius, who played for Kazan in Russia last season. averaged 15.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in the Euroleague Cup last season before moving to Dynamo Moscow this summer.

Simas Jasaitis

Template: a destitute version of Peja Stojakovic

Jasaitis is a 2-meter-01 (6-foot-7), 225-pound (102-kilogram) swingman. As a scorer, he was an all-around attacker with a variety of scoring options for his longtime team Lietovus Rytas, but gradually became a shooting-oriented player in successive moves to Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Tau Ceramica.

Jasaitis has good speed and bounce, though neither is superb. Three-point accuracy is good, shooting 50 percent from three in the Euroleague last season and averaging 1 of 2.

Jasaitis moved to Tawau from Maccabi*** with head coach Neven Spahija last season, but Jasaitis saw his playing time drastically shrink, averaging 4.6 points and 1.4 rebounds in just 15 minutes of Euroleague playing time. He signed a one-year contract this summer with another Spanish team, DKV Juventut de Badalona (Badalona is a municipality on the outskirts of Barcelona).

Sarunas Jasikevicius

Europe's top-organized guard, the king of Europe and one of the souls of this current Lithuanian team. Classic three-point shooter, super big heart, excellent organizer.

Jasikevicius is not a physical monster, but with a height of 1m92 (6'4") and 93kg, Jasikevicius has a strong body as an organizing guard. Has a traditional organization of the ability to defenders need to organize, range and some breakthrough ability, perhaps due to the reasons of college in the United States, but also often some no-look-pass and other fancy moves, but never at the expense of the simplicity of the pass quickly at the expense of a special weapon to deal with the defense, on the contrary.

Nicknamed Saras, Jasikevicius is a fearsome killer from both the 3-point line and the free-throw line, shooting 40.8 percent from 3 and 93.8 percent from the line in the Euroleague last season.

On the defensive end, Jasikevicius isn't very good, mainly because his taller frame leads to slightly slower speed and a slight lack of one-on-one defense.

Jasikevicius moved to the U.S. early in life, where he attended high school and went on to the University of Maryland, where he did well. But after graduating in 1998, he was not selected in the NBA draft and returned home to join the Litas team. 2000 after joining Barcelona began to go to glory, and since then, until he went to the NBA, he Jasikevicius's name is equal to the championship. After two consecutive years of Spanish League Championships, Barcelona won the domestic league cup and Europa League Triple Crown in 2003, while the Lithuanian team won the European Championships in the same year, won the Spanish League Finals MVP and Europa League MVP Jasikevicius into the peak of his career. 03 summer he moved to Maccabi Tel Aviv, in addition to helping the team to routinely sweep the domestic league cup, but also led the team to win 04-05, and also the first time to the NBA, he was the first time in his career, he was the first time in his career. In addition to helping the team routinely win the domestic league cup, he also led the team to win the 04-05 two-year Euroleague title, reaching a personal Euroleague three consecutive titles.

In 2005, he entered the NBA as the King of Europe, joining the Indiana Pacers, but in the internal turmoil of the Pacers and the Golden State Warriors, who believe in the aesthetics of violence, he was not convinced, and in 2007, he returned to Europe with a high price of two years of 7 million euros in after-tax salary, joining the current year's EuroLeague champions Panathinaikos (Panathinaikos). Although the Euroleague was eliminated in the second phase of the group stage, and failed to continue their own history of consecutive titles in the Euroleague, but still won the Greek league and cup double.

The 2000 delicate Olympics Jasikevicius's desperate three missed to let the U.S. team back from the dead, to Athens in '04, Jasikevicius 28 points in the group stage to lead the team to eliminate the Dream Six,

Jasikevicius is this year's Euroleague rated Euroleague history of the top 50 most important people, one of the 35 players. He, Ginobili, Papaloukas and Anthony Parker are the only four active players to make this list.

Robertas Javtokas

Template: poor man's version of Mourning

The rare physical, defensively tough interior player in Europe.

The most famous story about Javtokas is the one about his miraculous recovery and return to basketball again after being injured in a car accident caused by driving a motorcycle at excessive speed (140 km/h).

Before the accident, Javtokas was one of the most athletic big men in Europe, dunking a 3.60-meter basket in the '01 Lithuanian league all-star game. Imagine him in a car accident in 2002 and still dunking at will at the age of 28, and you can see just how good his jumping ability was before he broke his leg bones.

At 2-foot-11 (6-foot-11) and 110 kilograms (250 pounds), Javtokas has all the resources a good defender needs: strength, speed and bounce. Though not a defensive mastermind like Alonzo Mourning, he is among the top in Europe in both rebounding and blocking with good physical conditioning and an aggressive attitude toward the game.

Offense is not particularly talented, but there is an average level of basic skills in the interior, with the strength advantage can take a lot of points, the basket to pick up dunks is also a masterpiece.

Javtokas also played one year of NCAA in the United States as a member of the University of Arizona, and Javtokas, who played for Dynamo Moscow last season, can contribute an average of 24 minutes per game in the Russian League, while averaging 12.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.4 blocks in 26 minutes per game in the Euroleague Cup.

Rimantas Kaukenas

Kaukenas is a 1-meter-94 (6-foot-4) guard with shooting ability and not much change on the break but fair speed and rhythm. Last season with Siena, he averaged 14.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals in 29 minutes in the Euroleague.

Linas Kleiza

With Songaila out, Kleiza is the only player left on the Lithuanian national team who plays for an NBA team.

Kleiza, also a player with a U.S. college background, played two years at the University of Missouri before abandoning school to enter the draft, where he was selected by the Blazers in the first round, 27th overall, in '05, and became a member of the Denver Nuggets via trade.

Krejza is only 6-foot-8 (2m03) but weighs 245 pounds (111 kilograms), making him a player with the weight of a power forward, the height and skill of a small forward. With good range, Krejza attacks from as far as the three-point line, and when opponents employ small forwards to defend him, his shooting threat, strong body, and average-enough breakaway ability make him quite a threat to break down the floor. He has good back-to-the-basket skills when facing small forwards inside. He has grown into an extremely efficient bench microwave scorer in his three years with the Nuggets, and the Nuggets' open style of play has made it easy for him to fully express his scoring skills.

Despite playing very aggressively, Krejza's excessive weight has, after all, hampered his mobility and left him struggling a bit defensively against the high-speed swingmen of the United States. Krejza also does not have a strong matchup or the rebounding caliber needed to be a power forward. Overall, Krejza is a big-bodied scorer who shoots well.

Krejza has seen steady growth in performance and playing time in his three years with the Nuggets, averaging 11.1 points and 4.2 rebounds in 24 minutes per game last season.

Mindaugas Lukauskis

Template: poor man's version of white guy who can also fly Brent Barry

Lukauskis is a 1-meter-98 (6-foot-6) point guard who weighs 210 pounds (95 kilograms). Lukauskis has fairly good quickness and bounce, and a good outside shot with a slightly leaner build.

Lukauskis played for Lithuania's domestic club Litas last season and represented the team in the Euroleague last season, averaging 8.4 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals.

Marijonas Petravicius

A 2-meter-07 (6-foot-10), 235-pound (107-kilogram) interior player. Petravicius, 28, went to the University of South Carolina for the NCAAs in 1999 and returned to Europe after graduation, moving to FC Litas in 2006 to replace Javtokas, who left for Dynamo Moscow, as an interior lineman. He suddenly broke out last season, becoming one of the most efficient players in the Euroleague in his debut with averages of 13.5 points and 5.6 rebounds in 25 minutes and a 72.2% shooting percentage.