Barça starts on the wrong foot the Euroleague qualifiers with a defeat that takes away the home field factor. Roger Grimau hoped that the Palau would be a decisive factor in leading the way towards final four of Berlin and defeat (75-77) now transfers the responsibility exclusively to the players, who must win one of the two matches in Athens. Before, of course, They will have to solve the next Palau duel this Friday.
The Catalans will need serenity and wisdom, At key moments they lacked the essential clairvoyance to flip the marker. The first happened at 70-75 and Ricky Rubio forced an intentional foul after a steal. The point guard scored both free throws and then Laprovittola gave a bad pass to Hernángómez. There was just over a minute left and the deceptive 75-77 came in the last second with a Parker dunk.
0-6 to start
Barça was behind on the scoreboard from the opening kick-off, when Fall scored six points in a row (0-6) and William-Goss stretched the Greek lead to seven points (4-11). The score was balanced at the end of the quarter and took on a Barça color after the restart when two triples by Abrines put Barça ahead.
The team did not sustain that streak of success, with too many lost balls that in the end also made them lose the thread. But the success of Filip Petrusev, author of his 12 points in that period, who together with Cannan widened the difference between them to 10 points, one less at halftime (35-44).
Counterflow
Rowing against the current, then, the Grimau quintet spent the game. From bad to worse the duel for local interests went, while the difference was widening even though the Greeks did not write unbeatable statistics. Of course, a fantastic 63% in shots from two (22 of 35) reinforced Olympiacos’ confidence to sustain scoring production. Barça had to grit their teeth to adjust the defense and avoid the bleeding that was occurring, but at the same time cold blood was required to choose good shooting options. Two contradictory virtues.
No outside shot
The 13-point lead that Olympiacos acquired after the break was halved at the start of the final quarter, which reopened the hopes of a Palau that played its game. Get used to winning it. The 15-2 balance of the season certifies it.
Laprovittola took charge with his leadership on a day in which he was denied in the outside shot, where only Abrines (three triples) threatened from outside. One man was not enough for Olympiacos’ defense to open up. His outside players played a lot with their body and arms to recover balls before that ball reached the bottle. Vesely, with two premature fouls, closed his game with only three points, all three free throws. Satoransky got a zero.
“We have not felt comfortable at any time,” confessed Roger Grimau, implicitly assuming that Georgios Bartzokas won the game. The Greek went out of his way to make it a physical and tough match, which displeased the Blaugranas. They’ll have to buy some armor by Friday.
Datasheet:
75. Barça (18+17+19+21): Satoransky (-), Laprovittola (9), Kalinic (6), Parker (13), Vesely (3) -starting team-, Rubio (10), Jokubaitis (6), Hernangómez (12), Abrines (11) and Da Silva (5).
77. Olympiacos (19+25+17+16): Walkup (-), Canaan (14), Peters (2), Sikma (4), Fall (11) -equipo inicial-, Williams-Goss (15), Brazdeikis (4), Petrusev (12), Wright (4) , Larentzakis (2) and McKissic (9).
Referees: Damir Javor (ESL), Tomislav Hordov (CRO) and Rain Peerandi (EST). They eliminated the visitors Walkup (min.39) and Fall (min.40) with five fouls. They called out an unsportsmanlike foul against the local Vesely (min.18).
Incidences: first game of the Euroleague basketball quarterfinals played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona before 7,328 spectators.
2024-04-24 21:44:54
#Barça #stumbles #step #final
