The 2020–21 Lietuvos krepšinio lyga, also called Betsafe-LKL for sponsorship reasons, was the 28th season of the top-tier level professional basketball league of Lithuania, the Lietuvos krepšinio lyga (LKL). Žalgiris achieved their 23rd title overall, eleven consecutive.[1]
Competition format
During the regular season, all teams play 36 games. The top eight teams in the regular season standings, after playing their entire 36 game schedule, qualified for the playoffs in the quarterfinals, that was played in a best-of-three games format. The semifinals were played in best-of-three format.
The final round was played between the two winners of the semifinals. The finals series, for first place, as also games for third place were played in a best-of-five format.
Notable events
On 30 September 2020, the LKL has reached a historic agreement - LKL will be broadcast in foreign countries for the first time since its establishment.[2]
On 27 October 2020, the LKL Board has decided how to deal with the spread of COVID-19 infection and how the LKL championship matches will take place. The minimum number of players in a team in order to play a match is 8 players, if there is no such number of players in the team, the match will be suspended and postponed to the next date.[4]
On 27 April 2021, the LKL board decided that 11 teams will participate in the tournament for the next 2021-22 LKL season. Next season, a team from NKLCbet Jonava, which won the NKL title this year, will join LKL. The team that will take last place this season will not relegate to NKL.[5]
On 7 June 2021, the last match of the Betsafe-LKL final series took place. Žalgiris won the Betsafe-LKL title, it is already the 23rd Žalgiris title and the 11th consecutive title.[6]