Baby this is not what it seems

This fact, which may seem so incredible to us, is still indicative of the change experienced, even taking into account that the Unicaja of modern times wanted to rub shoulders and look like Baskonia, to change rivals and have Valencia Basket as a dance partner, and end up doing it with the Canary Islands. All these changes, the result of the continued decline in status of the Malaga club in the face of the new strength of the upper-middle class of the Spanish league.

The return to the playoffs after several years of absence makes the reconciliation almost definitive, above all because although the subject of objectives can be discussed and qualified whether or not they have been achieved, the truth is that if there is something that seems to almost all of us it is that the club is in the way of placing itself in the right place and status, recovering a large part of the squandered credibility. Very few fit at the top, but I thought more about being close to the elite than about the absolute mediocrity lived.

With the staging that the team carried out in the first game in Tenerife, and after seeing the pleasant surprise of a match dominated from the initial jump, perhaps it would be good to remember that phrase about the unfaithful couple caught red-handed. In this case, not because you’re doing anything wrong, but because it’s not as easy as you might imagine. To get there, to present that ability to deactivate an opponent that instilled as much respect as the Lenovo Tenerife, you have to do something more than put yourself in the mood, because if this were just courage and intensity, all this would be much easier.

Even so, to think that the thing is resolved is something absurd. With all the recent history already known, with a rival more than capable of turning this around, I don’t think anyone is going to dare. In any case, we would have already signed in Malaga to face the second game of the quarterfinals in this way, because despite the slippage in the FIBA ​​BCL Final Four, not only in performance on the pitch, the attitude of the squad of Ibon Navarro continues to give the good image that was seen from the start of the season with the preview of the European competition.

First try to resolve the issue on Thursday, if possible. For this, it will be necessary to fix the indecency of the percentage of free throws, or that the number of lost balls is limited to the usual average, not that it increases when the crucial part of the course arrives. The important thing is that I don’t think anyone has stopped believing in the growth of the team with what has been laid as its foundation since the preseason.

With respect to the adversary, and after acknowledging that the historic Canarias team has been doing things very well for a long time, I was moved by feelings similar to those we saw here before, something seen in the last moments of the great coaches that have been in Malaga and that in its final season it was clear that they were leading a project that was difficult to extend, that it showed signs of tiredness in its intention to continue, or that it needed a total revolution. If there is something that assailed me during the game on Sunday, it was the question of where were the good players of the insular team that deactivated the Los Guindos team.

And yes, everyone’s problems have an influence, be they injuries, illnesses, a long season or whatever, because if Txus Vidorreta would have liked not to include gastroenteritis in the preparation for the match, Ibon Navarro would have liked to have Alberto as well. Díaz and Jonathan Barreiro, but these problems are inherent to the competition. Perhaps the most immediate objective for the visitors will be to recover and show that Sunday was a bad moment. And on the part of the locals, that Unicaja has returned to never leave again.