The Barça It has been exhibited in a placid encounter to devastate a sad Real Betis Basketball 104-70 with a host of good news that will allow them to face a very tough month of January with high spirits in which they will still have to play seven games.
Rokas Jokubaitis responded after too many games in a dead end mazeCory Higgins, Nikola Mirotic, Oscar da Silva and Jan Vesely completed excellent minutes, James Nnaji broke his scoring record with 16 points, Barça also with 104 and the shooting percentage from two was from another galaxy (25/29… but it became 23/24).
was one of those ‘cheating parties’‘, but this time the locals were not for surprises and the visitors showed a level that would hardly give them enough to compete for the top of the table in the LEB Oro. It is a miracle for Luis Casimiro that this squad concocted by Berdi Pérez have won three games.
The game only lasted five minutes, until Sertaç Sanli equalized (11-11). From there, a triple by Cory Higgins and two from a Nikola Mirotic who closed the first quarter with 11 points and +10 allowed the Catalans to complete a 21-10 run to complete the first 10 minutes clearly ahead (29-21).
In the second quarter, a Betis with Luke Fischer is already without Rodions Kurucs and Jeremiah Hill (he scored three points in Girona’s victory) dragged the 13 bars of his shield around the Palau with apparent carelessness and a lack of competitive ability that allowed Barça to achieve a 20-7 run with two three-pointers from Higgins, another two from Da Silva and four points from James Nnaji (49-28, min. 16:12).
Jasikevicius’ men were eager to get a comfortable victory and to give their fans a show. For this reason, they did not lower the piston and came to command 54-31 after a three-pointer from Kuric, although a three-pointer from a Dairis Bertans who has been stuck with his shotgun all season sent the game to halftime with 54-36.
The third quarter was a Jan Vesely exhibition, who dismantled the serious internal problems of Betis, the result of chaotic sports planning that led him to appear with only 10 players as if it were a 25-hour tournament. The Czech scored 13 points without a miss with three dunks included (one with a foul and an additional free kick scored) and +16 efficiency.
Vesely exemplified Barça’s desire and his third straight dunk was the highest income so far (71-42, min. 26:42) and the anecdotal three-pointers from BJ Johnson and Cvetkovic at least prevented that figure from continuing to increase at the end of the third fourth (76-50).
Renewed until 2027 despite targeting the NBA before, Nnaji kept showing his big present and his even greater future with eight points and two mates included. Other excellent news was starred by Rokas Jokubaitis, who had his best game in at least a month and a half with eight points and seven assists, some of them sensational for the Nigerian to crush. Barça needs him and he knows it!
The fact is that the azulgranas were winning 90-54 after a triple by Jokubaitis with 6:24 remaining when Luis Casimiro stopped the game for the last time. In front of more than 6,000 spectators, Barça came to win 95-102-63 and ended up doing it 104-70 with a ‘double-double’ from the Lithuanian point guard (13 points and 10 assists).
