Equalized semifinals. To sweat ink in Malaga. Barça lost to a superior Unicaja and now they will have to win one of the games in Malaga if they don’t want to be knocked out of the League final. This Friday, the Blaugrana team, weighed down again by Mirotic’s bad game (6 points), showed its bad face, the irregular and tense one, against a more consistent opponent. It was their first defeat of the course at home in the League.
The start of the Barça game can only be described as unfortunate. The Blaugrana team did everything backwards during the first minutes. Neither in attack nor in defense. Not even in the shot. Not even on the rebound. Not at all. All Jasikevicius’s words about having to enter the game with maximum concentration remained a dead letter. If your players heard them, they went in one ear and out the other. A real disaster. As a result, a resounding 1-14 for Unicaja. Barça was a complete nonsense and missed its first eight shots. They were haphazard attempts, with plays usually based on individualism.
Meanwhile, Unicaja, well directed by Perry, was amassing differences. Jasikevicius turned to Jokubaitis as a shock and it worked for him. The point guard scored the first Blaugrana basket after six minutes and gave the team another tone, more energetic and fresh. He was seconded by the normally cold Sanli, and Barcelona minimized damage (18-25 at the end of the first quarter). It wasn’t great, but at least the Palau public saw how his team stopped the bleeding.
If Jokubaitis had been the director of the reaction, then another secondary like Kalinic, better in attack than usual, would take over. Of course, on the other side, Carter was a sting in the Unicaja attack. Barça had already got on the hump of the Malaga team but could not get ahead, nor would it until the break (37-40).
Jasikevicius’ team was waiting for a dull Mirotic to appear (only 2 points until the intermission), who finds it difficult to fuel when the first shots do not go in, as if he were carrying the slab of his terrible performance in the final four.
Barça needed some first sword to get on the party bandwagon and Laprovittola responded to the call. A triple from the Argentine finally put the Barcelona fans ahead (in the 24th minute) within a moment of insanity. Barça was capable of spinning a 14-2 run, with eight points from the South American (52-47). But it had been so difficult for Saras’ men to climb the mountain that once they got up they forgot about oxygen and Unicaja answered with another run, now 2-15 (57-63 at the end of the third quarter).
Carter and Perry were plugged in and the set didn’t look good for Barça, who had to appeal to the Palau factor to try to hunt down the win. But the Blaugrana team had gone back into a tailspin and Unicaja was undermining them with transitions. 1-1 and to Malaga.
