Barcelona suffered from its own neglect for a few minutes and had to rearm to end up beating Maccabi in the Euroleague (83-78). He deactivated his rival in the first part, especially in the second quarter, and managed to get an 11-point difference and the possibility of extending it, but he let himself go. The five rental points in the first quarter were reduced to four at halftime. Barça was not entirely comfortable in attack. He scored 20 and 21 points respectively in the two periods of the first half and also added 21 in the third quarter, but Baldwin, formerly of Baskonia, appeared for what he almost always does, revolutionize the game, and put the Israelis with 10 points in their favor in the final minutes, 57-67. Only then did Jasikevicius’s team react and was able to reduce the gap to go into timeout with only five points behind. Jokubaitis emerged and stopped the bleeding. He rained less.
Maccabi was able to hold out until five minutes before the end, but a deep scoring crisis for the visiting team plunged them into their own doubts. Then Vesely’s energy appeared, Laprovittola improved and suddenly, Barcelona took the lead on the scoreboard. With a well-adjusted defense, which prevented the Israelis from seeing the basket, the 10-0 run put things in their place, or where Jasikevicius wanted them to be. With more than five minutes without finding the ring, Maccabi ended up falling apart. As he appeared, Baldwin vanished. He had added 15 points in the third quarter and did not score any in the final. From 68-74 it went to 80-74 while Palau rejoiced at the withering reaction of their team.
Baskonia is capable of going back 11 points against the European champion and losing a few days later to one of the bottom teams (89-83). When you lack the spark, anything can happen and almost nothing is good. With Mediolanum’s minimal advantage on the scoreboard, he did not know how to play with the nerves of Emporio Armani, who had only six victories in his locker, and allowed himself to be carried away until the final defeat.
They defended badly, rebounded worse, and if against Efes, the team’s choral performance and the appearance of various individuals served for the feat, against the Italians, the tone was gray, although almost until the end the team from Vitoria kept a chance of winning. The entire game was very even, although Baskonia never got off to a good start. He came close on the scoreboard, equalized it and sometimes took the lead, but he never had the inspiration to break away. Thompson and Giedraitis tried to lead the team, but they didn’t have many companions in the task, although Costello tried to join the cause in the fourth quarter.
In a very even match from start to finish, the details are usually what count. Baskonia was not as fine in scoring as against Efes; the percentages dropped and that, in the final minutes, is crucial. The clear shots from Vitoria failed and caused Armani, more clairvoyant under the boards when it comes to collecting rebounds in attack, to distance themselves with three minutes to go.
Meanwhile, Valencia played firmly at La Fonteta to win against Bayern with a comfortable difference (82-73). Alex Mumbrú’s men did not slack off at any time, they always commanded and marked the times. The solid performance of Xabi López-Arostegui from Getxo and American Jonah Radebaugh pushed the Valencian team to an eleventh victory, which is now on the border of access to the qualifying rounds. Although there is still a long way to go, they are in the fight.
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