Sheridan: USA-Lithuania Preview; Beware the Bigs, and the Shooters

BARCELONA — Two years ago, when Team USA was jam-packed with superstars at the London Olympics, they played Lithuania in the preliminary round. Forty minutes later, they were fortunate to escape unscathed.

The final score was 99-94, as Lithuania stuck with the Americans until the final minute. It was the only competitive game for Team USA until the gold medal match against Spain.

That version of Team Lithuania had a bona fide alpha dog in Linas Kleiza, who is not competing this summer. He is the Kevin Durant of Lithuania in some ways, having chosen to prioritize his honeymoon over playing for his national team. They also had an NBA veteran in Sarunas Jasikevicius running the point despite his advanced age and diminished talents.

Neither of those guys is playing this summer. Nor is Mantas Kalneitis, who separated his shoulder in practice on the eve of the tournament, leaving the Lithuanians with no true point guard. They are making do with converted shooting guards.

So while the Americans did not send their best possible team, neither did the Lithuanians.

What the Lithuanians did send was a new alpha dog in Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas, the new focal point of their offense as they play inside-out. Rockets forward Donatas Montiejunas also is on this team, but do not expect him to be playing major minutes. Big V prefers to be flanked by one or both of the Lavrinovic brothers, identical twins whose back story is the type of thing Hollywood would make a move about if its reach extended to Vilnius.

Valanciunas prefers to play alongside the Lavrinovic brothers because they are thugs. OK, thugs is a strong word. They are tough guys, OK? Their hard fouls are a little harder than most, and they could care less whether their opponent is from USA, Egypt or the Fiji Islands. Everyone gets the same treatment, and the treatment is rough. They are like a combination of Bill Laimbeer, Charles Oakley and Warren Jabali.

So if you see Anthony Davis or Kenneth Faried or DeMarcus Cousins lying on the hardwood in Thursday’s US-Lithuania semifinal, chances are a Lavrinovic will have put them there. That is what they do.

What else do they do?

And what should the Americans expect? (By the way, expect the Americans to be well prepared. Their chief scout is Arturas Karsishovas, who happens to be Lithuanian.)

Well, first of all, they are coached by Jonas Kaslauskas, a basketball coaching vagabond who has been in charge of the Chinese National Team and the Greek National team over the past decade. He worked as an assistant for Del Harris a decade ago in Athens, when Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian were members of the Chinese team that defeated the reigning world champions from Yugoslavia to make it into the knockout phase while eliminating Peja Stojakovic and his brethren. It was one of the bigger upsets in Olympic history, and to this day Harris will tell you it was one of his greatest single accomplishments as a coach.

Kaslauskas will undoubtedly try to get the American bigs into foul trouble by force-feeding his own bigs and having them crash the glass like a bunch of Lithuanian Farieds. If Davis and Cousins can be neutralized by fouls, the Lithuanians will like their chances going up against Andre Drummond and Mason Plumlee, the two Americans who have clearly laid claim to the 11th and 12th roster spots.

But it will take shooting, too, to defeat the Americans.

After Lithuania took down Turkey on Turkey, Kaslauskas was asked why his team did not rely more on the 3-point shot (they had gone 10-for-19 from 3-point range).

“Everyone in Lithuania can shoot. I can still shoot,” Kaslauskas said. “But we were playing to our strength, which is our size.”

For the tournament, Lithuania is hitting from the arc at a 40 percent clip – second overall and first among the remaining teams (Australia made 47 percent). And although the best 3-point shooter on the roster is reputed to be Simas Jasaitis, it is Darius Lavrinovic, who has knocked down 10 of 16 attempts (63.5 percent).

Also shooting at least 40 percent are Martynas Pocius, who played sparingly under Coach K at Duke while earning an undergraduate degree in international comparative studies. He is at 7-for-17 (.412) for the tournament. Point guard Adas Juskevicius is shooting 57 percent (12-for-21), small forward Jonas Maciulis is 8-for-15 (.533), and even the two players who have spent the fewest minutes on the court – Kristof Lavrinovic and small forward Mindaugus Kuzminskas, are both 2-for-5.

Team USA scored 40 points off turnovers in the quarterfinals against Slovenia, and the strategy against Lithuania will be to force as many mistakes as possible to create open court transition opportunities. Lithuania is not particularly good or bad at protecting the ball. They cough it up an average of 14.7 times per game, far more than Spain (12.2) or Brazil (10.8). But remember, they have shooting guards running the point.

If the Americans can get 30 points on the fast break, they should be in good shape. But if Valanciunas is a monster underneath, if the Lavrinovic brothers turn this game into a wrestling match, and if Lithuania continues to hit threes at a 40 percent clip – and is able to make 15 or more – then this is going to be a meat grinder of a game.

Don’t take the Lithuanians lightly. They are not a pushover by any means.

Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. He has covered every senior U.S. national team since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. Follow him on Twitter.