Lithuanians all across the world (but mostly in Lithuania) had surely circled this game on their calendar as one of the most important games to watch this season. Domantas Sabonis versus Jonas Valanciunas, the battle of the only two Lithuanians who matter in the NBA.
If you think I’m slighting Ignas Brazdeikis, I am. I just watched that dude airball a bunch of shots tonight and he doesn’t really look like an NBA player at this point.
But back to this much-anticipated matchup. The promise of this game was that Sabonis and Valanciunas would do a lot of banging in the paint, featuring grunting, sweating, and balls going either into holes or not into holes. Lithuanian style, is what they call it in the Baltic states. Did I mention the grunting? Yeah. Lots of grunting.
It was not to be. Valanciunas ducked out of this matchup for reasons known only to him. “Illness” was the official reason given for his absence, and the Grizzlies continued the ruse even further by having him not be with the team under the pretense of not infected everybody else. Pfooey. That’s what I say. PFOOEY. Maybe he really was sick, sick because he was thinking about how hard Sabonis was going to dominate him.
Sabonis wins this round by default. 18 points (mostly on pick-and-pop jumpers in typical Pacers fashion), 14 rebounds, 8 assists (that all sucked), compare that to Valanciunas statline of NULL. Lithuanians who stayed up late (or woke up early) to watch this will have to ask for their money back, except if they’re like Americans, they just streamed the game illegally anyway.