The Barça He said goodbye to the year in the worst possible way, seeing his streak of nine wins in a row in the Euroleague. His executioner has been the Bitci baskonia, the last team that had beaten the Catalans and that showed that they had taken the measure of the Sarunas Jasikevicius despite the poor overall performance it is offering this season. The 94-75 final says it all: everything came out for the Vitorians and very little for the Catalans, almost none after the break.
The Barça team had been flirting with defeat for several games but had been getting ahead on the basis of trade and pride. He suffered to win on the track Panathinaikos (82-85) and starred in a true miracle last week at the Palau against the UNICS Kazan, a match they won in extra time (111-109) after lifting a 20-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
In Vitoria at Barça he ran out of strength and, above all, hunger. Just the day the team recovered various troops (Nigel Hayes-Davis, Sergi Martinez and a Cory Higgins who had been KO for almost two months due to an annoying low back pain) played one of his worst games of the course. Possibly the players of Saras they expected a much less motivated and toned rival, especially after their blushing defeat two days ago in Zaragoza (97-79). But this Baskonia It is unpredictable, it brings out its quality when you least expect it. And the one who has found the Barça it is possibly the best of the season. And this despite the last minute low of Landry nnoko for some indeterminate disciplinary problems.
Those of Saras at no time have they managed to close their rim as usual. Supported by his offensive fluidity and Laprovittola, Barça threatened to escape in the first quarter (18-23) but Baskonia’s triples prevented it.
A triple of Jokubaitis has put Barça’s maximum advantage at the beginning of the second quarter (20-26) but from there Barça has fallen into a spin. Matt costello did what he wanted in the visiting area, with Brandon davies more clueless than ever and Sertac sanli unable to respond to the mobility of the American. Defending strong and coming out with speed, the Baskonia He has signed a spectacular 16-0 run to turn the game around (36-26). The Barça He could have retired to the locker room at his rival’s shot but he missed a free kick and gave a rebound under his hoop that allowed Costello put the 40-34 of the break.
In the second half the Baskonia he smelled blood and came out with redoubled intensity and success. Ten points followed by Nikola Mirotic they have kept their swords up for Barça (50-42) but the Montenegrin was very alone and whose source has dried up, Barça’s attack has turned into a desert. Quite the opposite in Baskonia, which was adding more and more troops to their cause: Baldwin, Granger, an infallible Giedraitis, a ubiquitous Fontecchio and even the almost always discreet Lamars Peters.
Two triples of Giedraitis and a basket of Fontecchio They have raised the local advantage above twenty points before the end of the third quarter (74-52) and the rest of the game has been nothing more than a celebration of the Buesa Arena against a Euroleague leader who this time has not seemed so absolutely.
Bitci Baskonia-Barça, 94-75
94- Bitci Baskonia (20 + 20 + 34 + 20): Granger (10), Giedraitis (20), Baldwin IV (16), Sedekerskis (-) and Enoch (13) -starting five-, Barrera (-), Costello (13), Peters (8), Marinkovic (-) and Fontecchio (14).
75- Barça (23 + 11 + 20 + 21): Laprovittola (12), Higgins (2), Sergi Martínez (2), Mirotic (19) and Davies (4) -five starting-, Exum (3), Sanli ( 13), Smits (2), Hayes-Davis (2), Jokubaitis (11), Caicedo (3) and Nnaji (2).
Referees: Emin Mogulkoc (Turkey), Joseph Bissang (France) and Saulius Racys (Lithuania). Visitor Sergi Martínez was eliminated for personal fouls (min.39).
Incidents: Meeting corresponding to the eighteenth round of the Euroleague played at the Fernando Buesa de Vitoria before 7,802 spectators. David Gil directed Baskonia, in the absence of Neven Spahija, positive for coronavirus.
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