Jonas Valanciunas has been putting on a great campaign in the EuroBasket tournament, but he was exposed a bit in his team’s recent game against Finland. Lithuania was able to eke out a tight, 81-78 victory, but Big Val was largely reduced to a spectator down the stretch as his team needed to be able to switch everything on defense to slow down the Finns.
Lauri Markkanen was lighting up the Lithuanians by calling defenders into pick-and-roll actions, chiefly Valanciunas. With Val in a deep drop, Lauri had far too much room to shoot, and when Val tried to switch or play at the level, Markkanen was able to go right by him.