UNICS stood its ground – Newspaper Kommersant No. 68 (7513) dated 04/19/2023
[ad_1]
UNICS scored a tough victory over Zenit in the second match of the VTB United League semi-final play-off series with a score of 68:59. Kazan leads in the confrontation 2:0. Now it is moving to St. Petersburg, where Zenit will have a chance to compensate for the failures of the Kazan voyage.
The first match of the semi-final series UNICS-Zenit did not meet the expectations that promised a life-and-death battle between Kazan and St. Petersburg. The defeat inflicted by UNICS on the current champion of the VTB United League was so undeniable (Kazan won with a difference of almost 30 points) that it even prompted the temptation to say that everything was already clear in this semifinal pair (unlike the parallel semifinal, in which CSKA unexpectedly encountered difficulties in the confrontation with Lokomotiv-Kuban – the score in this series is 1:1). Of course, UNICS coach Velimir Perasovich said that the first match is not so important, and also that Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual will definitely come up with something in the next meetings, which means that you can’t relax. But in his place, any coach would say this in order to maintain the motivation of his own team.
The question was how motivated Zenit really is. The St. Petersburg club tried to sweeten the pill by remembering that in the quarterfinals this season they also started with a defeat from MBA, that last season they started in the semifinal series with a loss to UNICS, that history repeated itself in the final against CSKA. But all this is nothing more than an entertaining statistic that had little to do with the current state of affairs. But in reality, it was the second match in many respects that should have answered this question about the readiness of Zenit to continue the fight to retain the title. And it’s not even that one more defeat would be a huge problem for Zenit. No, after all, the series goes up to four victories, and even with 0:2 it is quite possible to recoup. The question was what quality of basketball the champion is capable of showing.
And the quality of performance “Zenith” just did not please. Failure, the same as in the first match of the series, when the St. Petersburg team already at the beginning lagged behind the opponent by a dozen points and then failed to rectify the situation, managed to be avoided. But what didn’t happen in the first ten minutes happened at the very beginning of the second. UNICS turned on some kind of inspirational mode: Vince Hunter, Nenad Dimitrievich and especially Jalen Reynolds gave an amazing stretch, and Zenit was on the verge of disaster in just a couple of minutes. His backlog reached 15 points. At the same time, there were no prospects for a return in the game of the Petersburgers. There was even some doom in her.
But Javi Pascual, with his great experience this time, managed to keep the team from collapsing. He brought her back into the game. Although, maybe someone will think that this is not a coaching job, but the merit of Caleb Homesley, who successfully assumed the role of the team’s motor. Be that as it may, almost nothing was left of the advantage of UNICS by the big break. Moreover, after an episode in which Daryl Macon and Velimir Perasovic received technical fouls one after another, the psychological advantage was already on the side of the guests. Another thing is that Zenit failed to take full advantage of the confusion in the ranks of Kazan. The guests had chances to knock out the opponent. Thomas Ertel and Adrien Moerman organized a great stretch for their team (Zenit started the third quarter with a 9-0 jerk), forcing Perasovich to take a timeout again. But Zenit failed to maintain the same level of play, so the game entered the mode of, let’s say, anxious expectation, in which approximate equality reigns on the court, and the intrigue comes down to whoever has stronger nerves. Well, or whoever is more lucky. The hosts were stronger and luckier. The end of the meeting was theirs. UNICS won with a score of 68:59 and took the lead in the series 2:0. Now she will move to St. Petersburg.
[ad_2]
Source link