Unicaja will face the second round of the Endesa League 2022/2023 starting next weekendperched in the upper part of the table, with a good cushion of victories over ninth place (the first of those who do not play in the playoffs) and with everything in their favor to fight for a place in the playoffs for the title that will start at the end of the Regular Phase.
The green team, which won a tough game this Saturday in Manresa, has added a balance of 12 wins and 5 losses in the first round, which allows Unicaja to finish fifth in the standings, only behind Real Madrid, Barça, Baskonia and Lenovo Tenerife. It is precisely these four teams, in addition to Joventut, the only ones that have managed to beat Unicaja in the League so far.
The numbers of those of Ibon Navarro are the best of the Los Guindos club at the end of matchday 17 for 8 seasons. And it is that only the 14-3 that the green team signed in the 2014/2015 campaign improves the current record. On that occasion, with Joan Plaza still on the bench, Unicaja was the leader at the end of the first round of the league. It was that season in which they wore green, among others, Jayson Granger, Mindaugas Kuzminskas, Kostas Vasileiadis, Ryan Toolson, Carlos Suárez, Caleb Green, Fran Vázquez and… Will Thomas!!!, the only one who repeats regarding this course.
Since then, the Los Guindos club has ceased to be a regular at the top of the table. It is true that the first leg of the league season has finished fifth, just like now, on two other occasions in the last decade. But both in the 2017/2018 campaign, and in 2018/2019, it did so with a worse win-loss balance than the current 12-5. In the first case the team signed a 10-7 and in the second it went up to 11-6.
last seasons
The rest of the courses in recent years, Unicaja has not been as brilliant as in the current season. The 2015/2016 League made it 8-9 to finish eighth in the first round. The 2016/2017 campaign added 11-6 to be sixth. In 2019/2020 and 20/21 he repeated the same record: 9-8, which earned him to be ninth and eighth, respectively. 12 months ago now, the end of the first round was especially painful, with a very poor record of 7-10 that left the team out of the Copa del Rey in Granada, an appointment that, due to its proximity to Malaga, made the team especially excited.” Green Tide”, who was left wanting to see his team compete for the first title of the year.
It is evident that Unicaja and its fans are experiencing one of the best moments of the last decade. There is another data that gives good proof of this: Unicaja has been in the playoff zone for 12 consecutive games, that is, among the top 8 in the standings. He had not accumulated so many weeks living among the elite since the 18/19 League, in which he spent 34 days leagues in the privilege zone.