The Pumarín fort must be this week more than ever. Before receiving Estudiantes on Sunday, Unicaja Banco Oviedo plays today one of the games postponed in December and which were part of the Christmas package. The rival, Palma (8:30 p.m., Vinx), bottom of the LEB Oro with a single win for twelve losses.
The balance of the Mallorcan team may suggest a simple rival, but the OCB coach, Natxo Lezkano, warns that “he lost three with Estudiantes, one with Palencia… he has lost three or four that he had in his hand and now he could very well be in the middle group. We can’t trust that, especially not us, as we are a team that has to play 100% every day”.
The team from Oviedo has just lost in Melilla by a single point (79-78), in a game in which the team, in Lezkano’s opinion, “wasn’t good, it lacked rhythm and we had mistakes, let’s say preseason. We will try to correct them.”
Palma has made several changes to the squad to revive the situation: it has released the Argentines Fjellerup and Ruesga (signed by Girona and Melilla respectively) and has incorporated Pavel Marinov, Robert Cosialls and ex-OCB Elijah Brown. None of the three, however, will be at the disposal of the technical tandem formed by Pau Tomàs and Álex Pérez, since they were not registered for the initial date of the match, December 29. “I really like Palma, I really like its players, how they make youngsters grow, and I like the fact that they don’t speculate, that they play an attractive game. Hopefully Elijah does well because we appreciate him.”
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