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Lithuania have shown once more why they have the weakest defense

They conceded over 80 points against Russia yesterday and their average on this tournament is 72.5 points per game. Slovenia suffered a major defeat against Serbia and some of their players had minor injury problems. Tomorrow's game against Belgium will probably be crucial for Slovenia

FIBA Europe

Reaching the second round of the European Championship was just a part of the plan for the Lithuanian team. Their main goal was to stay in Division A and they'll have to work hard to achieve that. After their convincing defeat against Russia yesterday, it's clear they will not reach the quarterfinals. Their current score is 0-3 and their game against Slovenia today will decide whether they end as the last-placed team in their Group E or not.

They only held their ground against Lithuania in the starting few minutes when they had the lead. Russia end the first period with a 14-0 run and they take a 17-point lead which decides the game. In the second period, Russia extend their lead to over 20 points but Lithuania manage to reduce it ever so slightly. The Russians get dangerously close to 30-point lead in the third period and the Baltic team suffers a complete meltdown in the fourth period. They lost that period by a result of 4-19, which makes the total deficit of -43 points, which means Lithuania allowed twice as many points than they scored.

Their average for this tournaments is 72.5 points allowed per game and they have the weakest defense by a high margin. They were completely powerless in the paint yesterday and the Russian centers dominated them in that domain. Lithuania's total field goal was 25.4%, while the opponents had a 50% efficiency. The Lithuanians also had 4 assists and 28 turnovers. The absence of their best player Dalia Belickaite was visible in every game as they simply have no players to take over as the leader of the team.

Slovenia opened the EC in a great manner, with wins against Turkey and France, but after that, they suffered a massive defeat against Russia (-30), and then lost their game against Serbia yesterday. Their current score is 1-2 just like Belgium, and the game between Slovenia and Belgium could decide who goes into the quarterfinals.

Slovenia had a poor start of the game against Serbia yesterday. They were soon down by 0-6 and the gap was extended to -7 by the end of the first period. The Serbian players got an 11-0 run in the second period. Slovenia didn't score a single point in last 6 minutes of the first half. This created a 21-point gap that Serbia managed to maintain until the end without putting in too much effort. This gap extended to even -30 and Slovenia go into the last period with a -24 deficit. The final 17-point margin was caused by rotations in the last minutes.

After allowing 72 points against Russia, 79 against Serbia is definitely not a good sign for Slovenia. They did alright in terms of rebounds but they had 20 turnovers, which is two times more than assists. Their main problem definitely lied in the fact that they were unable to slow Serbia down.

- The defeat against Serbia will not have a major effect for our group placement. However, we played too softly, and Serbia knew how to make use of that and secure their win. After this huge gap, have focused all our energy into games against Lithuania and Belgium - said coach Borut Fijavž.

He also revealed that several of his players have sustained minor injuries. Alma Potočnik is struggling with her knee, Ela Mičunovič has a problem with her ankle, Larisa Ocvirk has a minor flu, while their captain Maja Jakobčić has a problem with a finger on her left hand. Apart from Mičunović, all these players did not play yesterday, but not due to Serbia getting a huge lead so early on.

Slovenia will face a much more important game today but even if they lose against Lithuania, they will almost definitely need a win against Belgium tomorrow to go through.