Jasikevicius: 'Two players are not enough to win in Kazan' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: BasketNews/D. Repečka Credit BasketNews/D. Repečka

A new rivalry has been born? UNICS Kazan (12-7) managed to win against FC Barcelona (16-5) in a tight game. The Russian powerhouse played a better second half to beat the Blaugranas by six points (70-64).

Player of the Game EFF 29 Lorenzo Brown Points 22 Accuracy 9-13 Rebounds 3 Assists 8

Sarunas Jasikevicius began the press conference congratulating coach Perasovic and UNICS Kazan for their victory. Then, he analyzed some keys of the game.

"All of the big games are decided by details. I thought defensively we were solid except for the end of the third quarter, where they had a run at us with some cheap points.

Defensively a huge problem was fouling the shooters, which we did four times. We've been emphasizing this. But obviously, we as coaches are not doing a good job," regretted the Lithuanian coach.

Jasikevicius was not much happier with Barcelona's offense either.

"Offensively, we were out of rhythm. I'm happy that Calathes and Higgins are back. We will suffer with them until they get back into the rhythm. They are extremely important players for us. But I think we just didn't have enough good performances," added Saras.

The 45-year-old wanted to mention specific players in his statement, admitting he was missing some more input from another player.

"Higgins was excellent, Davies was okay, solid. But I cannot find a third player that was solid. And with one and a half, two players to win in Kazan, it's just not enough. We were not good enough," pointed Jasikevicius.

Asked about Mirotic's absence, out due to coronavirus, Barcelona's head coach refused to use any kind of excuse.

"We have been battling with injuries during the whole season. This is life in a pandemic. We are good even without him, but today we made too many mistakes. That made the difference", explained Saras.

3-pointers this season

41%9,1Points made:9,1Accuracy:40,8%Place in standings:7Record max:14Record min:3Most made 3FGs:Nikola MiroticTeamEuroLeagueStatisticsSchedule

Calathes was back after two months sidelined due to a leg injury, playing 20 minutes. The Greek guard did not score, but collected 4 rebounds and gave 5 assists.

"I did not plan to put him 20 minutes on the court. He played more because of Laprovittola and Jokubaitis performances. He was excellent in defense. He needs time offensively. It's normal," concluded Jasikevicius.

On the other side, Velimir Perasovic showed his pride after a worthy victory against FC Barcelona.

"First off, congratulations to my players. They played really hard for the whole game. We kept our concentration and finally found a way to win," said the Croatian coach.

Perasovic admitted how difficult it was to play against Barcelona's defense.

"We could not play transition offense today, which is always our goal. Barcelona stopped us. Sometimes we needed to play ugly, but we did it well," he celebrated.

John Brown III played a tremendous game, finishing with 20 points and a season-high 7 steals.

"Of course, we wanted to win this game. We owed those guys. It was a good atmosphere, our fans came out and showed up for us," confessed the American forward.

"We had excellent defense the whole game like John Brown, who had some crazy moments," agreed the 56-year-old coach.

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