After Wednesday’s narrow victory, the goal is to add a second win at home this Friday (9:00 p.m.) to transfer all the pressure to the Malaga team
Barça must maintain the great foreign success but improve the rebound that clearly dominated Ibón Navarro’s team
Barça has set itself the goal in this Endesa League semifinal of adding the second consecutive victory against Unicaja this Friday at the Palau (9:00 p.m.) and travel to Malaga with a reassuring 2-0 scoreline to transfer all the pressure to Ibón Navarro’s team.
The blaugrana managed to open the series with a hard-fought victory (84-81) in a very physical match, to which Jasikevicius’s players responded, and which allowed them to add that important first win to gain confidence for this semifinal tie.
Barça dominated largely due to the success of the outside shot (45% in triples) something that allowed him to control the game and come to dominate with 16 points, although Ibón Navarro’s team returned to the match with a different mentality after the break and made things difficult for the Catalans who they clearly lost the rebound battle (45 to 25) and allowed them to return to the game with many second actions.
This Friday, another ‘war’
A subject that they have surely worked on in just the 48 hours that they have had a break between games and that they will surely return to become a ‘war’ against this Unicaja who demonstrated the reason for this brilliant season they are havingwith the Copa del Rey title included.
The Barcelona group He will have to tie Kendrick Perkins short again, who was not successful at the Palau –He ended up frustrated and eliminated due to fouls- but he found other unexpected players like Yankuba Sima (19 points) or Ejim (14) who surprised Barça with their scoring contribution.
The tension will return to the track, as it happened in the first meeting
| DAVID RAMIREZ
Must go on trusting in his intense defense to complicate the quick transitions of the people from Malaga and in the foreign success that was one of the factors that ended up deciding the blaugrana triumph at the Palau, thanks to a 45% success rate with 10 three-pointers made out of 22 attempts. Loss control (only 9 in the first duel) will also be decisive.
Intensity from minute 1 to 40
Saras wants the team to maintain the intensity of the first match and he will continue giving minutes to all the players so as not to lower that physical game so necessary to face a Unicaja who continues to believe in their chances of winning at the Palau.
In the event of a Barca win, It would give a lot of peace of mind to the team that would be just one win away from closing this semifinal that, in case of lengthening a lot, it can leave an added wear thinking about the final. Although first you have to tie the 2-0, essential for the options of Jasikevicius’ team to fight for the title.