Gran Canaria – Unicaja

ACB League Round 4

Las Palmas, October 8, 13:00 CET

Unicaja played nine games since the beginning of the preparatory period in early September. Only once did the mighty team from Malaga score less than 79 points.
A team that would absolutely have the quality to perform with high ambitions in the elite Euroleague this season is third in terms of quality in the domestic Spanish ACB League. The club strengthened in the right way during the summer and kept all the main players in the squad, and they will have an excellent test of quality in Las Palmas on Sunday, away to Gran Canaria.
In the previous round, in front of their fans, Unicaja seemed a little tired after a series of matches in a short period of time. The result was a loss to the Euroleague team Valencia 82:76. Therefore, it is clear that the Malaga squad will be strongly motivated for the match in Las Palmas, for which they had as many as seven days to prepare and train well.
On the other hand, Gran Canaria played a Eurocup match against Greek team Aris on Wednesday (82:66 win), and after a long trip back to the Canary Islands, the team is expected to be tired. It is also clear that the home team did not have enough time to prepare for the duel with Unicaja.
The most important thing is that the style of play of Gran Canaria, with a lot of transition game and a large number of shots, absolutely suits the team from Malaga. At the end of September, Gran Canaria had two convincing defeats in the domestic ACB League against teams of much lower quality than Unicaja (against Joventut with a 14-point difference, and at Girona with a 23-point deficit), and the bad streak was ended in Thessaloniki. In both mentioned defeats in the ACB League, the team from the Canary Islands received at least 88 points.
Since 2020, Unicaja has not won this away game in Las Palmas (84:80), and now a match with a similar pace is expected, in which the guests will have an excellent opportunity to score at least 85 points. The breadth of options that the Malaga team has in rotation is impressive, playmaker Perry, guard-forward Djedovic and American Osetkowski are in particularly good shape. Famous power forward Thomas is expected to play at the top level, after he failed to express himself in the defeat against Valencia.
The impression is that in all positions Unicaja has two options to respond to the best players of Gran Canaria (American guard with Polish passport Slaughter, Argentinian Brussino, French guard Albicy). Both teams aim for a second triumph in the domestic competition, and Unicaja has bigger ambitions in the ACB League and wants to get closer to the top of the table as soon as possible.
However, Gran Canaria is an extremely difficult opponent, so instead of winning, it is easier to predict a large number of points scored by the visitors, in a potentially spectacular match in the early afternoon.