The Barça coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius, assured that his team will try “assert home field advantage” this Friday in the second game of the Endesa League semifinals against Unicaja with the aim of going to Malaga with a favorable 2-0 in the tie. “The series seems long, but it is very short. This 1-0 is very important, and there is a huge difference between 2-0 and 1-1. Tomorrow we have to play hard, supported by our people, and assert the home field advantage”, analyzed the Lithuanian coach this Thursday from the Palau Blaugrana court.
On Wednesday’s victory in the first game of the series (84-81), Jasikevicius acknowledged that “the five-on-five defense was not bad”, although he pointed out the rebound as the great subject to improve: “They did us a lot of damage. We do not close the positions in some situations and we are going to try to improve on the rebound”. “We are going to try to react, continue doing the things we did well, although we have many things to correct. We try to anticipate some of the things that the opponent will do, who has many options to damage us. You have to forget the 1-0 and try to win the next game”, he added.
Jasikevicius assured that They will try to “be more consistent” in the second round of the series and stressed that “it is very important to know how to get up after the opponent’s sets, because he is capable of easily scoring an 8-0”. “It’s important to calm down, call a timeout and then continue doing our thing. You have to learn why the rival has made the set and keep fighting ”, he completed. Finally, Saras assured that the squad is physically “well”, used to playing “many games in 48 hours”although he acknowledged that he will need “everyone even for a few minutes.”