Sarunas Jasikevicius points out current Barcelona problem / News - Basketnews.com

"We always have players who are out, all season long, and players we need to bring back. In that sense, we don't have continuity," Jasikevicius said.

Credit: Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Tolga Adanali/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Valencia Basket grabbed their second consecutive home win by topping FC Barcelona at La Fonteta on Friday night. Chris Jones sealed the outcome from the foul line, as Valencia edged the visitors 84-83 to improve to 7-8 in the standings.

Player of the Game EFF 18 Jasiel Rivero Points 16 Accuracy 5-7 Rebounds 1 Assists 2

"Congratulations to Valencia Basket and coach Alex Mumbru. I thought they were better in many aspects of the game. First of all, the competitiveness, the sense of urgency, a lot of things to do with physicality, with wanting it more," Barca head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said of his opponents post-game.

"I thought that, with that type of physicality, it is very difficult to win in a EuroLeague game away, and we paid the price, obviously, for not being able to convince the guys that it was going to be a very difficult game," Saras added.

Being able to be more aggressive in the second half allowed Valencia to maintain control of the game in their hands. The hosts took 22 free throws in the second half, drawing 19 fouls.

"As always, the coach must take responsibility and try to convince my guys of the physical battle here that they really emphasized, or even talking in the interviews, how they wanted to be more physical with us. But also, tactically, we were not good. We were not good at all today," Jasikevicius stressed.

"Both teams arrived to this game without a lot of physical demand. We had four days to prepare this game and used some of them to rest after a tough week. We could play with a short rotation if the bench players did not work, and in the first half, it was clear that our bench didn't work. Then we chose to play more minutes with our starting five; that was the idea.

"We always have players who are out, all season long, and players we need to bring back. In that sense, we don't have continuity," Saras pointed out the main Barcelona issue at the moment.

"But we will eventually get there, to have 10 players that we can find and help in every game," he concluded.

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