Roger Grimau’s Barcelona Starts Season with Ups and Downs: Leader of the Euroleague, but Struggling in Domestic Competitions

Roger Grimau’s new Barcelona has started the season with ups and downs. On the negative side of the scale, he has already lost two Clásicos with Real Madrid (in the Super Cup and the League) and has suffered a lot to beat the two promoted to the Endesa League, Palencia and Andorra. But there is a positive side: 2-0 and leader of the Euroleague (+26 in points difference compared to Real Madrid’s +25) thanks to two high-level times, with a lot of authority in the Palau against Efes and suffering until the end in Piraeus, where they beat an Olympiacos team that lost the Kaunas final with Real Madrid in the last second and is surely the big favorite along with the whites in this new edition that has just begun.

But, for now, Olympiacos is not showing its level from last season. They won with great difficulty and coming from behind against Panathinaikos and lost against Barça on their court and despite turning a -15 into a +7 just 5 minutes from the end (66-59). But Barça scored 0-14 with which they definitively escaped to victory (68-77 final). The Greek team seemed weak in the final minutes. Beyond those who have left (Vezenkov and Sloukas), Giorgios Bartzokas now has the losses of Nigel Williams-Goss, Shaquille McKissic and Luke Sikma. In addition, Moustapha Fall returned and, still not being 100%, played with a minutes restriction.

With the outside rotation very depleted, point guard Thomas Walkup arrived very tired in the final moments, in which he made several momentous errors (he finished the game with 5 losses). In total, he played more than 35 minutes. Bartzokas complained bitterly after the game about the situation of his squad and how stretched they are by the current schedule: “Walkup should have played 20 minutes, that’s what his tests say. But since Goss is not there, he had to play 35. And he ended up exhausted, and that’s why he made mistakes and made bad decisions. He plays with us, he played with Greece because it was important for everyone. He plays everywhere. Now we have to deal with what happens in the summer, and I have to do that. I don’t want this to sound like an excuse, but our preparation was not complete. We are short of troops. Everyone does what they can, and we have the spirit and talent to try to plug the holes. But we play Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. And the level of play is also suffering. It’s like that for everyone, but we should be able to enjoy it. The calendar is inhumane for everyone. I can’t blame the players, the rotation is short now. We will improve. Our lack of physical strength influenced our spiritual strength and we made mistakes against Barça.”

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2023-10-14 09:38:01
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