Jonas Valanciunas needs no introduction, and one night in Kaunas certainly does not change what we know about a player with his pedigree. Olympiacos, however, gave him an early taste of what it means to face the reigning European champions and just how demanding life in the EuroLeague can be when an opponent is capable of tailoring its game plan around you.
Jonas Valanciunas returned to Europe with a very specific role at Zalgiris. He was brought in to become the player around whom a large part of their identity would be built, providing size, experience and quality in the paint and, above all, becoming the reference point the team could turn to whenever things got difficult.
In the first major test of the season against Olympiacos, all of those qualities were on display, but so was something equally important: even a player with Valanciunas’ quality and experience needs time to readjust to the demands of the EuroLeague, particularly when the opponent is the reigning European champion.
Olympiacos left Kaunas with a 93-91 victory and a 2-0 record in the competition, in a game Zalgiris remained in contention for until the very end. Valanciunas finished with 11 points, six rebounds and seven assists, numbers that say more about how he adapted as the game progressed than they do about a night in which he failed to impact his team.
Two early fouls changed the picture
The night had started very differently. Valanciunas scored to make it 21-17 in the first quarter, but shortly afterwards he picked up his second personal foul and was forced to the bench, as Olympiacos made life difficult for him around the paint and limited his influence during the opening stretch.
The two fouls were obviously an additional factor, forcing Zalgiris to manage the minutes of their starting center differently, but Olympiacos did not let up when he returned. The Reds continued to make sure Valanciunas could not establish complete control of the paint or settle into the kind of rhythm that could turn him into the dominant presence Zalgiris needed.
He had just two points and no rebounds at halftime, while Olympiacos had held Zalgiris to 44 points. But Valanciunas did not stay quiet for long. After the break, he became far more involved, finding the ball more often and looking for different ways to influence the game when Olympiacos refused to let him dominate around the basket.
His seven assists were perhaps the clearest sign of that adjustment. When the game was not allowing him to impose himself in the way he would have liked, he found other ways to remain influential and involve his teammates.
That is what makes Valanciunas’ first major EuroLeague test so interesting. He does not need to prove that he can play high-level basketball in Europe; his quality is already beyond question. What he needs to rediscover is how to dominate when facing teams that have specifically prepared their defensive game plan to take away his strengths.
Olympiacos did not beat him in the paint, they beat him in the details
Olympiacos did not need to take Valanciunas completely out of the game for 40 minutes. They simply needed to limit his influence enough to ensure that his presence would not determine the outcome.
Zalgiris found solutions through Azuolas Tubelis, Sterling Brown and Carsen Edwards, while Valanciunas raised his level after halftime and the game headed towards a finish in which every possession carried enormous weight. That was when Olympiacos’ experience in handling these situations became evident.
Fournier hit the big shots, Montero converted the crucial free throws, and Vezenkov did what he so often does in games decided by the finest margins: he was exactly where he needed to be.
With two seconds left, Fournier made the first free throw to put Olympiacos up 93-91 and missed the second. The ball stayed alive, and Vezenkov grabbed the offensive rebound, effectively sealing the victory for Olympiacos.
The moment becomes even more striking because Valanciunas was right there, the player expected to be one of Zalgiris’ main pillars this season.
One rebound does not change the assessment of Valanciunas, nor should it. It does, however, capture the difference in the details that decided a two-point game.
The first lesson came from the reigning European champions
This was the first truly major lesson for Valanciunas since returning to the EuroLeague and, at the same time, another important confirmation of Olympiacos’ level.
The Lithuanian is more than good enough to become a dominant force in Europe, and his second-half performance showed that he can influence a game in a variety of ways. What he will likely need is time to get used to the fact that the top teams in the competition will not simply allow him to dictate the game on his terms.
They will change defensive coverages, look to draw fouls, force him to pass, attack his weaknesses and make him make decisions on almost every possession. The margin for error becomes smaller, the physical battle becomes constant and every adjustment can have a direct impact on the game.
Olympiacos did exactly that in Kaunas. They did not erase Valanciunas from the game, but they made his night difficult and, when the game reached its decisive moments, they had more solutions and greater composure in the details.
A road win at one of the EuroLeague’s toughest venues also says plenty about Bartzokas’ team, which opened the season with two wins against two very different opponents and showed once again that it can find ways to win when the game comes down to the final possessions.
Valanciunas will find his way. His quality and experience are beyond question. But in his first major meeting with a team that knows exactly how to handle games like this, he was reminded of just how demanding the EuroLeague can be at the very top.
That reminder came from the reigning European champions.
