Unicaja stormed the Palau yesterday and took home court factor in their semifinal against a Barça that, for many minutes, was little short of knocked out (79-88). Tyson Carter (19 points) was the highlight of a team from Malaga in which Tyler Kalinoski, Kendrick Perry and David Kravish also shone. For Barca, only Nico Laprovittola (19 points, 16 of them after the break), Nikola Kalinic (14 points, PIR 21) and Kyle Kuric (13 points) provided the necessary combativeness for a series that thus remains even ( 1-1).
Unicaja had a very intense start, in which they took advantage of Barça's mistakes in attack to punish them over and over again on the counter. With this plan, Ibon Navarro's team surprised with a 1-14 run in the first six minutes, with Carter as the most outstanding in the eminently choral offensive game. Barça would not recover the initiative until midway through the third quarter.
But first, to recover some ground, Sarunas Jasikevicius's men learned from their mistakes in a second period in which Kalinic, above all, pitched in. The Barcelona fans went three points behind at halftime (37-40), after Nikola Mirotic, very discreet throughout the first half, ultimately missed a chance that would have further shortened the gap.
From 52-47 to 57-65
In the resumption, meanwhile, it would be Laprovittola, fundamentally, who commanded the reaction attempt against a rival who, far from giving his arm to twist and entrusted to Carter and Perry, managed to return the blows over and over again. From 52-47, with two triples by Laprovittola and a counterattack by Mirotic, they went to 57-65 with two decisive actions: a tremendous dunk by Will Thomas and a basket by Perry at the buzzer.
Driven by the good feelings at the end of the third act, Unicaja managed to leave by up to 18 points (64-82) against a Barça that was overwhelmed time and time again by a rival tremendously convinced of its possibilities. Kravish and Kalinoski, in this case, were the visiting stilettos to end up going over a Barça team that suffered their first defeat at home in the ACB (79-88) and that travels to Malaga with many homework in their backpack.