LKL finish line: home field advantage intrigue, Neptune’s chances and CBet’s duel with M Basket

The regular season of the Lithuanian Basketball League (Betsafe-LKL) will end in five weeks – many teams have seven games left to play. Krepsinis.net invites you to take a look at the current tournament situation.

The first three

Kaunas “Žalgiris” (21/2) is leading in the tournament, Vilnius “Rytas” (19/4) is second, and capital city “Wolves” (16/8) is in third position.

Žalgiris still has one match against “Ryta” at home on April 14, but the LKL champions have already defeated Vilnius twice, so they must have secured a mutual advantage. This means that “Ryta” not only desperately needs to win in Kaunas, but also to hope that “Žalgiris” will experience at least 2 more failures during the next rounds and on the condition that Giedrias Žibėnas’ students themselves do not stumble. Bearing in mind that “Žalgiris” lost 2 times in 23 rounds, 3 setbacks in the next 7 matches would be very unexpected.

“Rytas” has the second position in their pocket, as “Wolves” are not only 3 wins behind, but also do not have a head-to-head advantage – here 2:1 in favor of “Rytas”. Bearing in mind that “wolves” have 6 matches left to play, and they need to overtake “Rita” by one victory, the mission is impossible. There are no more questions about the top three.

Squirrel, Chanak

Who will have home advantage?

A fierce battle is taking place between Panevėžys “7bet-Lietkabelios” (13/10) and Utena “UniClub Casino Juventus” (13/10). The fourth position means home court advantage in the quarterfinal series to two wins. We will remind you that in the semi-finals the teams will fight for up to three wins. In the big and small finals – also up to three.

Nenad Čanak’s troops still have a match against “Ryta” in the capital, a trip to Klaipėda and a meeting with Ute at home, which could be decisive. So far, the teams have shared one victory each. Other opponents of “7bet-Lietkabelis” are below the teams in the standings.

UniClub Casino Juventus will also play against Ryta and visit Kaunas in the last round. It seems that the April 28 meeting in Panevėžys will decide everything.

Klaipėda “Neptūnas” (11/12) does not lose hope in the fight for the 4th place, which has been winning one match after another recently. Against “7bet-Lietkabelis” Klaipėda already has an advantage, because they won both matches played, and against Utenik they lost 2 times out of 3, so here the advantage is already on the side of Oliver Kostić’s students.

“Neptunos” is waiting for an important confrontation on April 13 at home with “7bet-Lietkabelio”, and from the above teams “Wolves” will also visit the port city. Jonava’s CBet, Kėdainiai’s Nevėžis-Optibet, Šiauliai’s and Pieno žavgiždės of Pasvalis remain next. The students of Georgios Vovor need to defeat the Panevezys if they still want to raise their heads. Also collect victories against outsiders. In this case, everything is still possible for Neptune.

Collins

7-8 seats

Mazeikiai “M Basket” (10/13) club can still think about the sixth place in the regular season, because although they are behind by one win, they have a head-to-head advantage over “Neptūnas”.

It is true that the schedule of the Mažeiki team is much more complicated than that of “Neptūno”, because the clubs “Žalgiris”, “Rytas”, “Wolves” and “UniClub Casino Juventus” are waiting.

In this way, CBet (9/14), who will play a mutual meeting with M Basket on April 14, can raise their arguments further. Both teams have shared one win at the moment. The men of Virginijus Šeškas also have a difficult schedule, as they will have to play against “Neptunus”, “Žalgiris”, “Ryta” and Uteniks. If “M Basket” and “CBet” do not surprise, the duel between them may decide who will take 7th place in the standings and who will remain 8th.

Thorpe

Overboard

“Nevēžis-Optibet” (6/17), “Šiauliai” (5/18) and “Pieno žvaigdės” (4/19) lined up from 9th to 11th place.

There is no need to talk about the chances of the team to advance to the playoffs, but they can still avoid the 11th place. A meeting with “Šiauliai” awaits at the weekend, where the teams have now shared 1 victory each, so in the event of a victory, the team coached by Aurim Jasilionis would overtake the Šiauliai team.

“Šiauliai” was still thinking about a place in the playoffs, but everything is buried by the controversial defeat in Jonava. Now the students of Žydrūnas Urbonas will meet with Pasvalias and Kedaińskis and can rise to the 9th place at least for a while, but during the remaining rounds Rytas, UniClub Casino Juventus, Wolves, Neptūnas and 7bet-Lietkabelis await. It is clear that talking about jumping into the playoffs is difficult and the 9th position is probably the maximum that the people of Šiauliai can squeeze.

“Nevėžis-Optibet” has a 3-win deficit to “CBet” and the teams will play each other again on April 18. So far, the ratio is equal – 1:1. However, it will be extremely difficult to catch up with the opponents, because “Wolves”, “Neptūnas”, “Žalgiris” and “7bet-Lietkabelis” are still waiting. Most likely, it would be best for Gediminas Petrauskas’ students to keep the ninth position, and with the smallest budget in the league, this would be the maximum result.

Playoffs

The current situation signals that the quarter-final pairings can be placed quite boldly. “Zalgiris” will fight against “CBet” or “M Basket” in the quarter-finals, “Ryto” will be waiting for one of the already mentioned teams, “Wolves” will meet “Neptunus”, and “7bet-Lietkabelis” will fight against “UniClub Casino Juventus”, only it is not clear who will have the home arena advantage.

“Long break”: harm and benefits of Wolves influencers, the most expensive players in the NKL, veterans’ disputes with referees, K. Porter in the Euroleague, the everyday life of journalists and the potential of Sargiūnas