The Euroleague’s dream was shattered for Barça on a disastrous night in Belgrade. A defeat against Real Madrid in the semifinals condemned Jasikevicius’ team (83-86). All the good feelings of the season were buried in a game in which the Barça team lost its head after the break, throwing overboard the 11 points advantage it had at halftime and especially the Mirotic player (26 points , 12 rebounds, 39 assists), which he chased without stopping to change the fate of Barça, but who will have to see, one more season, how the European title escapes.
No matter how well the two teams know each other, there is always room for surprise and Madrid proved it with a quintet without a starting pivot, with which they won the initiative. Laso’s move paired Sanli with Yabousele and the French pivot wing, much more mobile and with an excellent outside throw, gave the first eight points to the white team with two triples and a counterattack. Jasikevicius had to move quickly to the bench to look for answers to a match that started wrong (8-14). The entry of Davies and the prominence of Mirotic (7 points) gave it. Barça managed to get the score back in the first quarter (19-19).
The sensations, however, continued to be better on the Madrid side, which remained more fluid in attack. The dominance of the rebound, the penetrations of Deck and Hanga and some punctual action of Rudy gave problems to the defense of the Barça, that did not finish entering the party. The Catalan team failed to find the rhythm until the entry of Jokubaitis and the step forward of Davies in the fight for the rebound. Mirotic’s return to the field after a quick walk down the pitch. The Montenegrin star, very active in the rebound, also started to add in attack. And so did Laprovittola, and to a lesser extent, Abrines and Davies.
Control at rest
Barça offered the best minutes in this phase of the game and recovered some of the forms that have made it so solvent this season and managed to change the dynamic. Suddenly, Madrid was out of pace, overtaken by Barça’s transitions and lost effectiveness. The consequence was that Jasikevicius’ team shot on the scoreboard in the last four minutes of the second quarter, and a tie at 31, after a far triple from Mirotic, signed a 14-3 run that shot his lead above 10 points at the break (45-34).
When the semi-final seemed to paint well for Barça, everything went awry in a very strange third quarter. He was able to keep the dynamics in attack, although with an overexertion of Mirotic, who was left practically alone when attacking the rival basket. And Madrid, on the other hand, began to grow with each action by defending and taking advantage of matches such as Abalde’s with Laprovittola, in which he found a physical advantage.
Jasikevicius’s players now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. He suffered an inexplicable shutdown and conceded a hard-fought partial against (2-17) in just five minutes that sowed doubts in each of his actions and sparked the confidence of Laso’s team to return to see ahead on the scoreboard (56-60).
No matter how many changes Jasikevicius tried, Barça’s feeling of bewilderment did not go away and Mirotic’s loneliness only grew. Madrid was gaining in solidity and haste the team of Jasikevicius, with the score running against. Laprovittola’s two consecutive triples in the last three minutes (75-75, m. 38) seemed to give hope back to the Barça players, but Causeur’s appearance with five consecutive points marked an end that very few expected.
