Stumble at the Palau Blaugrana (63-73)

In a game where the defenses of both teams have been protagonists, the Barça has fallen defeated before a Unicaja from Malaga that has appeared in the Palau Blaugrana exhibiting one of its best versions (63-73). Despite this defeat, the azulgranas, with 22 wins, three more than the second-place team, remain leaders in the regular season of the Endesa League.

The good news you have received Conversation Jasikevicius in today’s game has been the recovery of important men like Brandon Davies Y Pierre Oriola. In addition, the match against the Andalusians was Nikola Mirotic’s 200th game with the Barça shirt.

equality reigns

After starting the match in which Unicaja de Málaga asserted their physical dominance to take the lead on the scoreboard (11-17), the Barça responded to the good Andalusian start with a solvent scoring exercise. Led by an omnipresent Nikola Mirotic, author of a spectacular mate and a prodigious triple, and a Brandon Davies that he has left some very positive minutes in his return to the courts, the azulgranas have been entering the game progressively until they cut, considerably, the distance reached for the visitors in the first minutes (18-19).

Despite the scoring drive with which Barça finished the first quarter, Unicaja was not willing to shrink. The people of Malaga have continued adding positive actions, both in attack and defense. Thus, thanks to a high defensive intensity that has allowed the Andalusian team to effectively counteract the rapid circulation of the Barça ball, Luis Casimiro’s men went into the break with a slight advantage of three points (32-35).

The last quarter decides everything

The beginning of the second half has continued to be framed in a constant exchange of baskets between both teams. While the offensive collaboration of the Catalans has been offset by a vigorous visiting defense, the leadership of Mirotic has received the replica of Brizuela’s spectacular success from long distance. With this context, Saras’ men have faced the last quarter with the aim of turning around the 46-50 that the scoreboard indicated.

In the final stretch of the match, despite finding open shooting situations from the outside line, the success of the azulgranas was not the usual. Thus, the team led by Sarunas Jasikevicius has not been able to reflect their good team play on electronics. For its part, Unicaja has continued to maintain a high scoring rhythm that has ended up giving a hard-fought victory (63-73).

Datasheet

Barça63
Unibox73

Barça: Calathes (-), Laprovittola (5), Hayes (6), Davies (10), Mirotic (20) – starting five – Sanli (5), Sergi Martínez (-), Orihuela (3), Kuric (6), Jokubaitis (5), Caicedo (2), Nnaji (-).

Unibox: Oliver (-), Fernández (13), Barreiro (6), Brizuela (22), Guerrero – initial five – Kravic (4), Alonso (2), Abrorraitis (9), Mooney (2), Nzosa (-) , Suárez (2), Bouteille (9).

partial: 18-19; 14-16 // 14-15; 17-23.

referees: Daniel Hierrezuelo, Jorge Martinez, Andres Fernandez.