It was the day of great comebacks in the azulgrana team with the signings, finally, of Pierre Oriolawho has been away for almost four months, and Brandon Daviesalthough the game was marked by the absence of Alex Abrines, suffering from gastroenteritis. Smits and Exum did not dress due to technical decision, they need rest. And it was the day of an important premiere, the new Palau video scoreboard is now a reality. And with all these ingredients, a game started that ended with a painful defeat for a ‘misplaced’ Barça that seemed to be thinking more about the Euroleague quarterfinals against Bayern and paid for it by losing to Unicaja 63-73 with a spectacular Brizuela .
Barça was not fine in the first part of a game that at times choked and in what way. Unicaja did not let the azulgrana game flow and this was noted in the scoreboard that showed the equality in both the first and second quarters.
Jasikevicius’s men started with the intention of intimidating their rival and a triple and a mate by Mirotic after three minutes were essential to put things back in place after the initial 0-5. But this did not intimidate a Unicaja that little by little was winning the game against Barça. Jasikevicius he stopped the game asking his players for more attitude, but with a partial of 2-12 the team from Malaga was placed with a +6 that gave them wings (11-17) and made the Palau uncomfortable.
Between Kuric and a triple by the returned Oriola solved the problem, but the reality is that Barça was not successful and closed the first quarter with a slight disadvantage (18-19) but with bad feelings.
The panorama did not change much in the second quarter where the outside game was conspicuous by its absence in both teams not scoring a single triple. Barça tried it four times and Unicaja five, but it was not the day to add in threes. Barça improved in defense in a second quarter where Miroticas always, became the great scoring reference, but without outside play and without rebounding it was difficult to stop being trailed by a Unicaja team that came into the break with a 32-35 score that was more worrying because of the game than because of the result.
Little success in the third quarter
The game entered into a dangerous dynamic in the third quarter with inaccuracies, losses, faults…everything but basketball. Few points and a rough but dynamic game with 3/10 for Barça and 3/12 for Unicaja from two shots. He left Calathes to put a little order, but Barça couldn’t get rid of a Unicaja team that found the perfect formula to entrench the Barça game with a great defense and with a Dario Brizuela that it was little more than a toothache for the azulgranas and if not, ask Kuric. The third quarter closed again with the Malaga team ahead (46-50).
Not even in the last quarter did Barça manage to stop suffering. He did not get good readings in attack and the baskets were difficult to reach, Unicaja took advantage of this to stay ahead until Jasikevicius with 52-59 on the scoreboard decided to stop the game again. He wanted his men to react but nothing could be further from the truth. Three new baskets by Barreiro, Mooney and Boutielle aggravated the Barça ‘crisis’ with a +14 for Ibon Navarro’s men (52-66) with a part of 0-10.
With 61-70 on the scoreboard, Jasikevicius asked for a new time-out, but the duel was sentenced and the players were already thinking more about the match against Bayern than about resolving the situation at the Palau. A good opportunity to virtually secure first place in the regular phase of the Endesa League was lost. We will have to wait. At the moment a painful defeat losing 10 points (63-73).
Datasheet:
63 – Barça (18+14+14+17): Calathes (-), Laprovittola (5), Hayes (6), Mirotic (20), Davies (10) -initial team-, Sanli (6), Sergi Martínez (-), Oriola (3), Kuric (6), Jokubaitis (5), Caicedo (2) and Nnaji.
73 – Unibox (19+16+15+23): Jaime Fernández (13), Brizuela (22), Barreiro (6), Oliver (-), Guerrero (4) -initial five-, Kravic (4), Abromaitis (9), Alonso (2), Mooney (2), Bouteille (9), Suarez (2) and Nzosa (-)
referees: Daniel Hierrezuelo, Jorge Martínez and Andrés Fernández. Without eliminated.
Incidents: Postponed matchday 19 of the Endesa League regular phase played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona in front of 5,850 spectators. The Barça pavilion has released this Thursday a state-of-the-art lighting and electronic scoreboard.
