BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Only in Lithuania would an NBA first-round draft pick take on the spirit of Christmas himself on the basketball court – and get more fan support.

Jonas Valanciunas recently appeared in Vilnius alongside a slightly more infrequent visitor to the Lithuanian city, i.e. Santa Claus. Valanciunas and Claus appeared as part of the festivities closing out the latest term at the Kalėdų Senelio Iššūkį, a.k.a. the Sostines Basketball School.

Naturally the prospective Toronto Raptor was challenged to a game of hoops before the thrilled youngsters, though the Team Lithuania big man was forced to play under similar conditions as ol’ Saint Nick, namely with mittens on. Whatever: Valanciunas still enjoyed home-court advantage, believe BiE.

Who won the game? See below for video…

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Courtesy BC.Rytas.lt and Balltime.net, below run the video highlights of last night’s Eurocup match between Lietuvos Rytas and Le Mans Sarthe. That is all.

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What gives? Days after Lithuania-based Basket News reported that the former Olympiacos/current locked-out Toronto Raptor wouldn’t be playing for Lietuvos Rytas any time soon, Linas Kleiza – or at least reportage regarding Linas Kleiza – has made a 180º turn in viewpoint in the past week vis-à-vis returning to Europe.

This morning, Lithuania Basketball has Kleiza quoted as saying that in fact he *will* be returning to play for one of his home country’s two powerhouse clubs – L. Rytas or Žalgiris Kaunas – and that’s it’s merely a matter of time.

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“No basketball anymore”? Are you serious? The next two days will see some 34 games played out in the top three European basketball competitions: Euroleague, EuroCup and FIBA Eurochallenge.

Below, BallinEurope presents some links, highlight clips and like on some of the competing teams starring Igor Rakocevic, Tiago Splitter, D.J. Strawberry and that Williams guy, among others. O, if only BiE had time to properly cover all this basketball … sorry, the NB-what?

• Rod Higgins of the Basketball Post provides much food for thought going into Montepaschi Siena’s game against Unics Kazan on how Igor Rakocevic affects the Italian side’s game plan: Has Ferdinando Minucci sacrificed trademark defensive trickery at the cost of a faster game with another shooter?

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Though Team FYR Macedonia eliminated hosts Lithuania from the 2011 EuroBasket tournament in mid-September, a certain amount of talk-trashing about the match continues in the blogosphere.

Yesterday, FIBA was forced to do a bizarre bit of damage control after Lithuanian media – specifically, who else but powerhouse club sponsor Lietuvos Rytas? – reported that two players competing in EuroBasket had tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs; the piece quoted representatives from the Lithuanian Anti-Doping Agency stated abnormalities had been found and that further testing would have to be done by FIBA on the samples of the two players.

FIBA Europe was quick to deny any such claims, however, soon releasing the following tersely-worded statement on the subject:

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The "beautiful, enigmatic bastard"

Lazy Sunday? Great: BallinEurope has just the thing to occupy your time! Below run some quality articles and gawk-worthy YouTubes from the week that was in European basketball and NBA lockout land for your perusal. The bullet-point format is in effect and the show stars Danny Green, Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje, Walter Szczerbiak, Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. Enjoy!

• For an excellent and thorough piece on the Real Madrid offense (and concomitant weak interior defense) in light of Thursday night’s Euroleague loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv, check out this work at In The Game. Figures writer Rod Higgins in part: “…it is doubtful that [Real’s] current style will serve them particularly well once the regular season is over. Madrid get most of their wins by simply outscoring their opponents. This means that they have to improve defensively; Bilbao, Milano and Maccabi have repeatedly exposed the weak interior defense of the Merengues earlier in the season…”

• Hey, some positivity for the Lithuanian fans! Roll the top 10 plays by Lietuvos Rytas in October!

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The EuroCup draw for groupings went down at 1pm CET today; below the break, BallinEurope runs the results of said draw. Information in parentheses indicates last year’s finish in domestic league play. So how’s your team’s group looking…?

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Well, at least BallinEurope got one of ‘em right…

In Vilnius, it wasn’t so pretty or high-scoring, but Galatasaray used a couple of scoring runs and outlasted Lietuvos Rytas to become the third TBL team in the 2011-12 Euroleague season in its first-ever bid in the big league … by the way, does this make the Lithuanian side the outright favorite to take the 2012 Eurocup title or are we still thinking Beşiktaş?

An excerpt from the league’s official writeup and highlights via Lietuvos Rytas TV follow.

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Songaila: Best hope for Galatasaray upset?

Lietuvos Rytas vs. Galatasaray Café Crown Galatasaray looked impressive in dispatching Asvel Villeurbanne (O, Tony Parker, où êtes-vous?) and putting up 93 points, the highest total registered in qualifying round games thus far. Better yet, the high-profile additions to the already solid Turkish team’s roster appear to be working perfectly: Jaka Lakovic and Darius Songaila contributed a whopping 40 points combined in the win.

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With Qualifying Round victories achieved by Cibona Zagreb, Lietuvos Rytas, Alba Berlin and Belgacom Spirou – and BallinEurope congratulates each potential Euroleague team for surpassing this first step – four other games go off tonight.

For your amusement and edification, then, BallinEurope presents a collection of highlight clips, quotes, previews and notes for of games played and to be played … and we’re doing this TrueHoop Network-, i.e. bullet-, style. Enjoy the games!

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