Zalgiris Fans are LOUD! (Game Day + DETAILED Game Breakdown)

This guy here, Elijah Bryant, does all the dirty work for FS. He was outstanding in the victory on Tuesday night against Bayern Munich. Bryant tries his arm from deep and delivers it.

Guys, I put in a super detailed film breakdown in this video. It's something new I wanted to try. I hope you guys like it. Let me know in the comments.

How is it cold out here?

You're from Minnesota.

Hey, Not from Minnesota don't mean it can't be cold everywhere else.

Why is it freezing? All right, we just made it to the hotel in Lithuania. Did you know that the national sport of Lithuania is basketball?

Their national bird is a stork. Oh, look at this. It's pretty cool.

But to be honest, this arena that we're playing in is honestly probably one of the loudest arenas in Europe, and they have some of the best fans in Europe.

When I say best fans, there's a difference when it comes to fans.

You have fans that are really good fans but are really rude, and then you have fans that are really good fans that are really kind, like the Green-White boys.

So it's all gears.

And then they have one of the best facilities actually in EuroLeague. If you want to see what the facilities look like, go check out Chime Monique's, uh, video. He did a video with Keenan Evans and toured the facilities, and they have access to a practice facility. They have a nice arena. And that's something you probably don't know, is that every team is different. And so especially like our team, we have like a nice arena, a nice place where you practice at the Federation, but but we don't have access to it all the time, which is unfortunate. So if you want to get extra shots up, let's say, you know, after a game you don't shoot it well, then it's kind of tough to do. So arenas like— I know Zalgiris, you can do that. I don't know if Asvel you can do that. I know probably Madrid for sure. Fener, I know for sure because I see Nigel's videos. But that's something you take for granted when you're playing in college because at BYU we had the annex, which is upstairs, and you can access that anytime just by your face scan. You saw that during the summer, but let's go eat lunch and get ready for practice.

I think they got the famous blood soup. You gonna try it?

I don't know.

Let's see, for your spine, so I'm thinking on the—

there it is, right? As a hooper during the season, you're gonna encounter— I like to call them knicks and nacks— and right now my knick and knack is my back. So I try to be a problem solver at all costs. My body is my moneymaker. So what the physio tells me or what the doctor tells me, I take it with a grain of salt because at the end of the day, I want to do my own research. So when I had plantar fasciitis last year, I developed a whole spreadsheet on Notion research or what exercise, all that stuff. So if you want that, I'll just put it. So let me know if you want it in the comments and I'll give it to you. But now I'm dealing with this back situation where my back's tight and my mom's a Pilates instructor and she said I should be doing some Pilates. So now I'm going to find a video on YouTube that I need to strengthen my abs, And just another problem to be solved. So don't take no for an answer if someone tells you your injury. Do more research, get a second opinion, because at the end of the day, if you're trying to play professional basketball, then your body is your moneymaker.

You got to take care of it. Enjoying life.

So really, thank you. Back is actually feeling a little bit better, can't even lie to you. All right, so I was thinking is that the past few games I've just been feeling kind of, and obviously we know about the situation personally, but even before that I felt kind of, and I realized what it was. Sometimes I have to check myself. I wasn't having intention in my practices, my shootarounds, my games. So for practice tonight I wrote down what I want to do. Says Zacharias practice. So you could screenshot that and use it. But these are all things that I feel like that I need to— in the last game, I feel like I could have done these better. So if you guys want me to do like these, like, workout, like, PDFs or, or files, then let me know. I know Trey does them. I haven't even looked at Trey's, but I actually saw this first one: stand behind me and throw it to a spot. In his last video, Slice of Life, if you haven't seen it, go check it out. He has his trainer stand behind him, throw it, and he goes and gets in and shoots it. I thought it was a good one. So his workouts look pretty good, go and check them out. But I think the biggest thing is every single day having intention because it allows you to feel like have purpose instead of just showing up to the game, oh, I hope I play well. No, today I'm going to do A, B, and C. That do A, B, and C that aren't based around a result but more based around the task, then you'll feel good about yourself. Oh, I show up to weights, I do A, B, and C. Oh, I show up to practice, I do A, B, and C. Never result-driven, all task-driven. I'm going to lay down for a second.

I'll be quiet now. Imagine, imagine what year is this for you in your league.

I stopped counting a long time.

Oh my God.

All right, we were having this debate with my team. Name a player that is more skilled than Jason Tatum. Okay, KD, Wimby, AD.

After that, who else?

So I definitely forgot my, my beet heat, my like beet juice that I drink before the game, but that's life. You're gonna forget stuff, but you can't allow that to affect you.

So get some breakfast, shoot around, and be great. I went in the arena. Fuck, man, too cold. Had to get my jacket real quick. Golly, wheezing outside. Let's go.

What's the score? Why are you running, D.O.?

Who won? Animal. He got me today. Post-game interview. Hey man, more than sure that one-on-one didn't go my way today, but you know, ultimately it's gonna be a lot of more days like that.

You know, so far I'm up on the series, you know.

Shot wasn't falling today, but the get back is real.

Hi, Roxy.

What are you doing?

Let me see your muscles.

Ooh, kisses. I love you.

Okay, so when I'm watching film, especially players I've never played against, I'm trying to see tendencies and where they like to score. What they like to do. And Lonnie Walker is obviously a very talented player, score mentality. So knowing that, knowing he doesn't want to pass, I have to be super aggressive on the ball. And how I know he doesn't want to pass is that he averages 1 assist a game.

So I love you. Dad's gonna say prayers, okay? Hold your arms. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you this day. We thank you for how many blessings you've been able to cause for our lives.

This is the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, round 14 of the regular season. Zalgiris Kaunas hosting Anadolu Efes Istanbul. As does this guy here, Elijah Bryant, does all the dirty work for FS. He was outstanding in the victory on Tuesday night against Bayern Munich. Bryant tries his arm from deep and delivers it. And Walker once more, Lonnie Walker gets 4. Elijah Bryant missed the first free throw. First shot of the game is a pull-up jumper, then a steal by Mitchell, and a triple from Francisco Bryant, a lot of dribbling, and Worthy, he did it as well. 8 points personal so far. Missed the pair but somehow gets the offensive rebound. Bryant is left all alone and he begs the ball to drop through his teeth. But Savini is going to pull the trigger on this step-back 3, gets it. Bryant answers with a 2. Be rebounding the game now. Willis, and he adds a 3-point bucket to that as well. Slow it down to Bryant. There's a pretty one-handed floater to go. PKT best performance in the third period. Once again, Elijah Bryant, 6 points for him, game's leading scorer with 18 points personal for the Shot Club. Gliding down Difficult shot, tough make by Elijah Bryant. Thompson, catch, shot, gets the roll, finds his point guard who finds Baroudis for the slam. Oh, that step-back 3, that one's off the mark, so no Change the score. Final score, Zalgiris 85, FS Istanbul 72. 23 points Elijah Bryant carried FS offensively.

Unfortunately we lost. Gotta learn from it. Season's fast. We fly back today. It's Friday. We have a game Sunday in Turkish League, so No one's going to stop and feel sorry for you. So again, focus on the consistency, not intensity.

All right, I already watched film, um, by myself with, uh, just on Instat in terms of like my minutes. But I thought it'd be very beneficial for me to watch film, uh, from a coach's standpoint. So I had one of my assistant coaches break this down and tell me what he sees, because I see it from a player's point of what I see, but I've never been a coach. So I think getting another point of view is always good. So this first play, he says empty corner pick and roll, start to play on free throw line extended to create more space. So here is the free throw line, and let's watch. So see how I catch it way too high right here? Way too high. So then when he said— when he sets the screen, there's too much space, it's too clogged up right here. Now if he was setting the screen down here then there would be a lot more space to come off. Let's see. And then I forced that pass because this guy's jumbled up. So we force Vinnie to take a bad shot. Your man plays next defense, get close to the line and be a threat. Okay, so let's see. Next defense is what— this is next defense right here. This guy right here, Alba Berlin, plays this a lot. So For example, he becomes the help on the ball. You see how over he is? See, so he gets a swipe. I'm out of position. I'm not even a threat on the goal, so I need to be right here. But his responsibility is to take away me, but I'm not giving Juice anywhere to operate, so I'm basically sabotaging our offense. As soon as I see Darius get the ball, I try to give more space. And this has been a special move. Great pass by Darius. You have pulled second defender to the paint. Roddy. Exactly. For sure, for sure, Roddy. It's like I'm always trying to find a mix between being aggressive and finding people, especially since I've been playing point guard more this year. Let's see again. So I get downhill, everyone collapses, Roddy's wide open. I think I need to slow down a little bit. Once I get here and I have everyone beat, I see, oh, little guy, Eurostep around him. I should have taken one more step and slowed down. That's gonna be my emphasis today— Eurosteps, slow Eurosteps. Dio's trying to set the screen. He can't move. If he moves, he's moving screen. So I need to bring him more down here and then call out the screen. Which will create a better passing angle for me, for Dio to have an advantage. Instead, we settle for— I mean, I think Dio can make that, so it doesn't matter. Shoulder by shoulder misdirection, same thing. I gotta allow a better screen. Attacking flat cage, cage, gotta cage this. Boom, cage. Yeah, so cage is when They're in white defense. This guy isn't coming up, so I need to come right here and put him on my back. Pause. Put him on my back, and, um, that allows me to slow down and see the floor. Darius is really good at this. So here I get kind of stuck and throw up a BS shot. Crazy thing is the ball is actually off me. Don't tell anyone. Come off. So boom, he's behind me. Take that right foot step right in front of him. Now the world is mine. I could see everything. I can see Vinnie rolling. I could shoot the pull-up. I could see easier what, what Walker is doing over here. If Walker comes in and tags— and they know I want to throw that lob to Vinnie. Look, look how they drop. Boom. So Darius needs to shift behind. But see how no advantage is really created? And this pass to here is a hard pass because you're throwing it over hands and this guy has time to recover, you know. So maybe I can use my eyes to throw this pass, but I throw a lob. Main thing is I need to cage. Vertical drive and toe engage defender roll are also available. Okay, let's see. Boom, get the screen. So Roddy, what Roddy did is usually what you do when they're hedging, right? So Bryant isn't really hedging. He's in like a drop kind of coverage. So Roddy goes out here. When they hedge, you throw it here and you throw it inside. Hedging means Bryant comes out to make me dribble the ball back, take my advantage away. So I kind of feel like I have an advantage. I thought a decent shot, tough shot, but decent. Space. If there was at the corner, he'd be wide open. Okay, let's see. Yeah, Derek has run to the corner. Great shot though, good shot. In fact, do not pass the ball to anybody before someone takes you. Facts, that is true. I'll be doing that way too much. I want to get my guys involved. Don't pass the ball until someone stops you.

Okay, write that down.

Attack The mid— middle one's okay. I gotta drive through here instead of going— I gotta stay in the middle of the lane. So don't go out here, go in here to make them make a decision. Bad transition spacing. Full sprint. Facts. Roddy right here tells me run. I said yeah, but I was tired. Yeah, so that's what he's saying. Look, so when he says pass ahead on the hedge, I know we talked about the hedge earlier.

Let's look at this right here.

So when you— when there's a hedge, when someone's hedging, you got to get 3 passes of angle. So boom, comes off hedging. He wants to get the ball out of my hands. That's fine. First pass is obviously gonna hit the short roll. This guy has to come up here. So you have 1, this guy, 2, turnaround pass, 3, pass here. Boom. If this guy helps, you pass to 24, Osmani. If he doesn't, Vince has a wide open shot. But see, I come off and I only have this and that. If Darius comes up, it's a layup or a wide open shot. I mean, good shot, but not great. Switch textbook. Boom, pop-up. Boom. Yeah, perfect, perfect, perfecto. But wait, wait, wait, go screen. So that ghost screen, if you think about it, the idea is smiling Itch already knows he's. Or this guy is guarding him. But this guy's never smiled, is a 4 or 5. He's never guarded like ball. Screen this situation. Go screen. Do you switch? Do you not see you're trying to create confusion in the last second? You see there's nine seconds left. Right. So I'm running. I call it Ghost screen. Doing the NBA all the time. I'm running. Hey, switch. trying to create confusion for my shooter to be able to get open shot. All right, let's go to defense now. Defense, good defensive effort. It's third quarter. Yeah, third quarter, I was like, F that. Enough for Lonnie Walker. Okay, good pressure on the ball. Over, fight over the screen. So here you never I did this— what did I do this? I did this in the Fenerbahçe game. Was it President's Cup? Fenerbahçe game, President's Cup, right before halftime. Bonzi Colston. So here they did ran outside out of bounds and I did it. But here, as a guard, no matter if you're late, you have to go over because if you go under, the big can't help at all. First of all, Dio's hella late. He shouldn't be that late. But boom. So I go over no matter what, and I have help if he curls on the backside. If I go under, I have no help on the other side if he goes back over. So here, when it comes to contesting, it's crazy. My coach from— this is a wrong-hand contest, but my coach from Maccabi, Giannis, always, he taught me this. I, I didn't even know this before. So on a right-hand shooter, you could test with your left hand. On a left-hand shooter, you can test with your right hand. Here though, all I'm thinking about Just get a contest. Doesn't matter if I'm late. Look, and it affects the shot. So little things, especially on defense, that you do over— we talk about consistency— you do over consistent amount of time changes the game. So if you contest like that for freaking the whole game, then it's gonna affect the game. Okay, here we go. Aggressively on the ball. Okay, let's see. Okay, here. Yeah, I gotta be way more aggressive. Way more aggressive. He hits a shot. Good shot. Wrong hand contest. Did you see that? Wrong hand contest. I'm so used to contesting right-handers. Boom. Right here. See, this is a left hand. It's the little things. Literally, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but when Giannis pointed it out when we were in Maccabi, I was like, wow, makes a lot of sense. If I'm shooting and someone contests me like that, I don't feel them. Like, if he missed it, he missed it because he missed it. But but if I contest with my right hand, it's totally different. Defending hot guy, no bump, emergency rack. This is the first quarter. Yeah, this is freaking— ah, so frustrated myself with this play because it happened in the first play of the game too. So they set a back screen for Ulanovis. I feel like my teammate's late, so I, for a second, I help, and I'm screwed because now I'm coming off the screen, and what I'm thinking is Okay, if I'm late, I have to chase, like we talked about before. But if I cut through, I have no help on the backside, nothing. So I think the biggest thing— I mean, another wrong hand contest. Look, left hand contest on a left hand shooter should be right hand. Still decent contest, but not enough, especially for a hot guy. Gotta be better. Oh, I remember this one. So this I like to call like the, the— I see everything. I'm the quarterback of the defense. I, I'm putting out all fires. So I see a fire, I see a fire, I gotta be earlier because Juice is late. At the end of the day, back to the psychology, the easiest shot is a layup. So let's say I get there a little bit earlier.

Boom.

Let's say I'm there earlier. If he passes here, I'm buying time for us to get back on defense. So the, the, the bottom of the eye, the last guy on defense is seeing everything. He's putting out all the fires. I gotta be quicker on that one. Boom. Switch. So he's saying they should have switched right here. Darius should have went out to him. And Roland should have went to the big guy, which I agree. And I, on the other hand, I'm sleeping, freaking taking a nap over there. So again, on the bottom of the eye, I should be putting out the fire. Look at me, why am I hugging my guy? Does it matter if it's freaking JJ Redick, Ray Allen, Steph Curry? I am the bottom of the eye. I have to be right here because we have a mismatch. So he should be even trapping when he catches the ball, and Darius shouldn't be fronting, he should be 3/4. So I should be right here, right now. Boom. Okay, uh, snafu. Stand your answer. Don't help. Don't help. Right here, don't swipe, especially on the hot guy. Dude already sprayed my face off one time. Look, no reason to help on Osmani on Ulanovis. He has that under control. I, I have to fight harder right here on defense, but again, swipe, get a swipe at the ball. To add to deter them from doing anything. You know, one time a ref told me I'm not allowed to block their eyes. He said it's technical foul because one time I was just putting my hand over his eyes, not touching him, but my hand is over his eyes so he can't see. Boom, bump, bump. Let's see what contest I get. Oh my God, I finally got a good contest. Hold on, left hand contest on a right hand shooter. Did it, did it really affect the shot? Who knows, but over the course of a game it might. All right, good low post defense. Let's see. Boom. This dude's a tank down there. I gotta get a swipe here with— I gotta get a swipe with, with this hand, dig the ball out. Boom. I know I played against him before, so I know what he's trying to do. I'm staying down. Great contest, but if I get— I feel like if I get a swipe, if I get a swipe there earlier, then he won't be able to get there. Another thing too is that Juice did a great job of, of crowding the paint, and Derek too. Gotta get that rebound though. No help for you on all of his drives. Yeah, I mean, I feel like this is— I understand what you're saying because it's obviously Walker, but just get a quick swipe and I'm out. Try to deter. Who was— hold on, timeout. How do you get so open? Player's individual, very lefty. This is the one I have to know. Yulinovas only goes left. And first of all, I can't lose sight of my man. So how I— how it's explained at a young age is you have pistols, right? So you should always be able to point your pistol at the ball and point your other pistol at your man. Here I can't do that. My left hand can't see my man, so I'm already losing the fundamentals. I'm doing 360s out there, and then I don't chop my feet when I get back to my guy. Then I let him go middle, then I let him go left as a lefty, and one. Now I'm headed to get an MRI on my back. Tomorrow we have a game against Sofás, which is 2 hours away by bus, so we're gonna practice here and then head there. I will say this, if you're a new player overseas or just just in general, you got to be your biggest advocate, especially overseas, because at the end of the day, your body is your moneymaker. So if you're hurting and you feel like the team isn't telling you the truth or whatever, like, ask for MRI, ask for a second opinion. That's not the case with my team. They do everything possible to keep me healthy on the court. Christmas is coming up, man. I, I'm exhausted. After a game, it's always super tough for me to sleep, whether it's a good game, bad game, especially when we lose. It's like super tough because it's like, what could I have done better for us to, to win? And I had some ice ice cream late, I was all out of whack. I'm not saying it's bad to have ice cream, but I'm just saying I was just— it's not me. I need a pick-me-up. You know, sometimes people, like, after a stressful day at work, they'll come home, you know, crack a brewski, a beer, and drink it. For me, that's either cracking a Sprite or having a scoop or two of ice cream. That's my way to— my comfort food. It was good to see Brian Dunston, my old teammate. You guys saw him in the, in the podcast. Good to see his wife. The kids weren't there, but It's crazy because this year I'm turning 30. Yeah, I know, 3-0, getting old. We got 2 kids. You feel like you're old. And I talked to my mom and she's like, you have so much life ahead of you. And I'm like, dang, I feel, I feel old. One thing that is super fire about Turkey but also annoying at the same time is that no matter where you are, you can park. Like, these people just park on the side of the road. They do it at our apartment complex all the time, but you can just park anywhere and no one's really gonna say anything. Remember how I said you can park anywhere? This is like kind of like the highway. The semi's just like, yeah, I gotta stop here. No one's honking at all. In America, people would be pissed. This is the MRI place. I am not gonna lie, that was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, but we got through it.

You forgot your whole bag at the gym, Roddy?

Wow, I need to shave. But you guys all know Roddy Bobois.

You've seen him on the, on the, on the vlog before.

The super OG, best shooter to ever play in Europe, from Guadeloupe. By way of Texas is always on island time.

When I mean island time, he forgot his whole bag at the gym when he's had a 3-hour bus ride.

Didn't realize until we got to the hotel.

I wish I could operate like that. I'm completely the opposite, to be honest. But let's go get some food and do some film. Dinner was solid.

Now I'm gonna go get a massage.

My brother told me this one thing. Brother that plays football at BYU told my mom that there's a secret: 15 push-ups every hour will get you cut. So let me knock out my push-ups real quick. And I got the toe spacers in.

Let's go.

I know I preach on this channel of like, follow your system, watch film, stretch every morning, do this, do that, but I'll be lying to you if I said those aren't hard for me sometimes. Oh, and the team we're playing tonight is actually— hasn't lost a game all year. In every competition, and they play in FIBA Euro Cup and Turkish League. So we got a big test on our hands.

Roxy, I haven't seen you all day, buddy. Say hi to Dada.

Hi, Rox. Uh-oh, there's a monster in the rug!

What's up guys, so obviously the game didn't end how we wanted it to end. We took a loss, taking quite too many losses this year in my opinion. But like I always say on this channel, losses aren't a loss if you learn from them. So all you can focus on is being consistent in your systems and your routines and holding each other more accountable. But today we have an off day and time to recharge with the family and really remember what matters most, because I feel like sometimes during the season when you're losing or you're not playing well, you can kind of forget what matters most. At the end of the day, like, if you're healthy and you have food on your table, you have a shelter, you are winning. You know what I mean? Like, let's not— let's put things in perspective. But again, remember, it's consistency over intensity. God bless.