The hatching of Higgins was not enough against UNICS and ‘the Browns’

Barça fell this Wednesday at UNICS Kazan 70-64 in a duel marked by the excellent local defense and for the problems in attack with an absence of Nikola Mirotic that has been noted especially in the second half. And it’s time to get up, because on Sunday comes the league classic at the WiZink Center.

In the dynamic of continuous problems that the team is experiencing in recent days, Sarunas Jasikevicius recovered a good part of the ‘touches’ and the ‘positives’ while lost a Nikola Mirotic due to the coronavirus that it was already infected in 2020 and that it is confined.

The big news was his return to the team almost two months after Nick Calathes after overcoming a proximal fracture of the left fibula and also as owner in a five in which Sergi Martínez was also. On the other hand, Pierre Oriola is still out due to an overload in the sacroiliac joint.

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Opposite, a Russian side that last month allowed themselves to come back 20 points in the last quarter at the Palau and that, just like that day, he once again had a very active John Brown as a great stiletto. Capable of stealing defense and running to crush the opponent’s rim, the American scored 14 points in the first half.

With eight points from Brown, UNICS took five lead points in a start marked by errors in attack (13-8) and for the three consecutive losses of and Rokas Jokubaitis weaker than in his last performances and that he allowed himself to do two one-on-one in a row in the right profile between the two Browns, Lorenzo and John.

Barça began to react in the final stretch of the first quarter (17-14) and linked his best minutes at the dawn of the second riding the best Cory Higgins of the season. Michael Jordan’s godson scored two three-pointers in a row to lead a 0-10 run that made it a hopeful 17-24 with 7:42 remaining.

That’s when Lorenzo Brown emerged with three consecutive baskets and UNICS was about to take the lead with 30-31 on the scoreboard after a mistake by Sertaç Sanli that the Turk solved on the offensive rebound. From there, a last visitor growth spurt with a mate-palmeo included of the very young James Nnaji (31-35 at intermission).

The team from the capital of Tatarstan made the rubber based on free kicks and, coinciding with the first two points (from the line) of a hitherto disastrous Mario Hezonja, came within a single basket of the reigning runner-up (39-41, min. 25:16).

Barça could not find shots in attack due to the changes in the indirect blocks of the locals, an Isiah Canaan who was beginning to appear turned the score around with three free throws and the former Barça player Hezonja delved into the Barça wound with his first triple (47-41, min. 26:35), forcing Saras to stop the match. By the way, without shining excessively, the Croatian finished with ‘double figures (11 points and 11 rebounds).

The Catalans reacted with five points in a row (a triple by Kuric who had not appeared and a great basket by Higgins), but they finished the third quarter badly and a triple by Vorontsevich and a penetration by a Hezonja that did shine behind (54-48). What the Blaugranas missed Mirotic against the great local defense!

Barça tried, but ran into an ‘octopus’ called John Brown over and over again who had already stolen seven balls at the beginning of the fourth quarter (a season record in the entire Euroleague). And the succession of offensive errors was broken by Lorenzo Brown’s triple to further complicate the situation (59-51 with 6:24 remaining).

And there a colossal Lorenzo Brown reappeared to shoot his own (66-56 with 3:04 to go). Despite this, the azulgranas did not stop believing and Higgins missed a three-pointer to come within just two points, which ended up paving the way for UNICS to a victory that they finally achieved by 70-64.