Sarunas Jasikevicius explains why he sent Kalinic to locker room / News - Basketnews.com

Sarunas Jasikevicius claims that Nikola Kalinic disrespected the team, therefore he sent the Serbian forward to the locker room.

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

It was an emotional night for FC Barcelona and its head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, who gave a short explanation of why he sent one of his leaders, Nikola Kalinic, to the locker room in the middle of the third quarter.

Player of the Game EFF 36 Vasilije Micic Points 22 Accuracy 6-11 Rebounds 3 Assists 5

"Nikola disrespected the team, we will deal with it internally," Jasikevicius shortly answered the question in the post-game conference.

Jasikevicius and Kalinic had an argument in the middle of the third quarter.

Jasikevicius was unhappy with Kalinic's defense and expressed disappointment before the time out.

The Serbian forward tried to argue with his coach. Suddenly Jasikevicius signalized him to leave the bench for the locker room.

Kalinic was on his way to the tunnel when Cory Higgins stopped him and suggested staying on the bench.

Kalinic sat down, but a couple of minutes later, Jasikevicius approached him again and made it clear he had to leave.

Talking about the game, the Lithuanian coach was disappointed with his team's effort and took the responsibility.

"Congratulations to Efes. They were clearly a better team," Jasikevicius said in his post-game comment. "As a coach, I have to take responsibility. We had a lot of time to work and rest, change tactics a little bit."

"I also believe we lacked physicality and attention. At the same time, [we conceded] 96 points. I expected a little bit more from our defensive sacrifice. We are playing in the champions' house. I thought there's no bigger motivation for my players.

It also didn't help that we missed many easy shots in the key moments. Overall, it's a bad evening for us. Hopefully, we can learn from that," added Jasikevicius.

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