Barça gave first in their semifinal against Unicaja. The Barcelona team had to work hard for the victory after starting with solvency. He beat the people from Malaga and always led the score but he couldn’t breathe easy until the end. Sheltered by the Palau, where the Blaugrana have won all their games in the League, Jasikevicius’s team gained the upper hand with good performances from Mirotic (14 points), Vesely (12), Abrines (12) or Sanli (13). This Friday, second assault, also in the old Barça pavilion.
The party was born cold. In the stands, perhaps due to parking problems at the Palau as it was not possible to access by car due to the works at the Camp Nou. And on the track, with a recital of shooting errors in the first minutes by both teams. However, the situation would soon change. Barça woke up before their rival thanks to Mirotic, nothing to do with this version of the power forward with the calamitous one in the final four. The Spanish-Montenegrin was joined by Sanli and Abrines, with their successes in the triples. Quickly, as Barça put land in the middle, they took control of the game, imposed the leisurely pace that suited them and minimized Unicaja, handcuffed by a very involved Barcelona defense that forced turnovers.
The tone was more similar to that of the two matches in the regular season than to that of the Copa del Rey crossover, where the people from Malaga surprised Barça.
Ibon Navarro, the Unicaja coach, moved the bench with relish but neither that nor his adjustments gave results. Barcelona was only distracted by an unsportsmanlike attack on Mirotic and a technical attack on Jasikevicius, but the Lithuanian called for order, returned Satoransky to the track, and the Barcelona coordinates were working again. A three-pointer from Mirotic raised the lead to 16 points and at intermission Barça left with a good cushion (45-31).
However, he returned from the locker room relaxed and Unicaja took advantage of it to be reborn thanks to Sima’s dunks. Seven points almost in a row from the pivot restored faith to the people of Malaga who in little or less got into the game fully with a 6-17 (50-47) run. He capsized at the Palau because his equipment had dropped in an incomprehensible way. Luckily for their interests, Vesely and Jokubaitis came with the oxygen cylinder so that Barça faced the last quarter ahead (66-58).
The Barcelona victory, despite the efforts of Sima (19 points), Ejim (14) and Carter (10), stayed at home. With difficulties, yes, because Unicaja had one last possession to tie. It did not.
