MALAGA (Spain) - This game may have ended with Unicaja cruising through the fourth quarter to secure another dominant 92-74 win over the Lithuanian champs Rytas Vilnius, but for three quarters of this game Rytas gave them their sternest test of the season in the Basketball Champions League.
And came closer than anyone else so far to ending that never-ending Unicaja win streak.
In fact, when the Lithuanians scored 27 points in the third quarter and took a five-point lead, they became only the second team this season to hold the lead over Unicaja in the second half of a game - the other being Filou Oostende all the way back on Gameday 1 at the very start of October.
However, that didn't stop Ibon Navarro's squad overcoming another challenge and finding a way to collect another W. So how did they do it this time?
Let's dive in.
#1 Running the break
Right from the opening tip, it was clear that Ibon Navarro wanted his Unicaja team to make their depth count. As usual, he rotated his roster to perfection, with all 12 players on court for 9 minutes or more and Kendrick Perry the only player with more than 20 minutes, and playing just under 22 minutes at that.
The extra freshness in the legs of the Unicaja roster must have contributed to them being able to keep up a relentless pace for 40 minutes. They won the battle for fastbreak points 14-5 and the points from turnovers 26-8. They also won the bench points matchup 50-28.
Just look at the first clip in the video below to understand the mentality they had to run the break and keep the pressure on their guests.
From a made free throw, Dylan Osetkowski didn't even let the ball bounce; he took two steps to get out of bounds and pinged a touchdown pass the length of the court towards point guard Kendrick Perry.
They didn't score but did draw a foul and the rules of engagement for the entire game were set. The next two clips are there to illustrate how relentlessly they ran from misses and turnovers and, especially in the first half, executed to a tee.
#2 Attacking switches
Against a team with the rhythm and chemistry that Unicaja have, it makes sense that teams try to find ways to break their flow.
In Rytas's case, the idea was clearly to switch ball screens and try to make it a game about matchups where Unicaja are drawn into playing a more one-on-one style instead of their usual, fluent, team basketball.
The danger of doing that with Unicaja is the talent they have in their backcourt with players like Perry, Tyler Kalinoski, Kameron Taylor, and Tyson Carter means that you are playing with fire when choosing to give them switches to attack.
All five of Unicaja's guards shot over 50 percent from the floor in the game, including a staggering 81 percent from three between them on 16 attempts. Kalinoski and Perry had 13 and 16 points respectively, with Alberto Diaz and Perry dishing 6 and 7 assists each.
Without a doubt, however, the player who really took the game away from Rytas was Tyson Carter. His 26 points in just 18:39 on the floor was the first time in BCL history that a player has scored more than 25 points whilst spending less than 19 minutes on the floor.
As you can see from the clips below, his points came almost exclusively from attacking switches. He made three-balls off the dribble with the extra space afforded by bigs standing off him, as you see in the first clip of our second video but where you really need to focus your attention is David Kravish in the second clip.
After the switch, he had Rytas's #2 Margiris Normantas on him and instead of allowing Normantas to switch back as Carter drove to the rim, he sealed him off and gave his teammate a clear lane to the rim.
Once you see it in that clip, you will see it repeatedly as Unicaja utilized that tactic to make one-on-one basketball a team effort.
#3 Limiting the Rytas bigs
The final key, tactical element that worked to perfection for Unicaja was their ability to limit Rytas's ability to find their bigs rolling to the rim.
If you have watched Rytas play this season, you will have noticed they are one of the best teams in the entire league at finding their bigs rolling to the rim, and in particular, they love to throw lob passes for Steven Enoch to get up and throw down thunderous alley-oops.
Unicaja managed to limit them to only one made field goal in the game, finding a pass to the roller from a ball screen action and that was for Steven Enoch early in the third quarter.
As you watch our final video below, you will see two clips. In the first clip, pay attention to David Kravish, and in the second one, Yankuba Sima.
On both occasions, the Unicaja big was up to touch and show on the ball screen, but instead of fully committing to a hedge, they played the passing lane between the ball handler and the roller perfectly whilst also maintaining a position that enabled them to contest any shot from the Rytas guard doing downhill.
In the second clip, we also saw that the defense turned to offense again as they converted a contested miss into an easy layup for Nihad Dedovic the other way.
This was an important win for Unicaja and asserted their top dog status in the group with two wins from two games but it was, however, only the first of two against Rytas and also the home game.
The Spaniards will have to visit Vilnius on March 25 for the final game of the Round of 16 and it will be fascinating to watch and see if they are able to make their depth count and maintain the same tactical advantages against a very tough opponent on the road.