When the now Fenerbahçe coach Sarunas Jasikevicius stepped onto the court – the last to bring a title to the Palau, the league three years ago against Madrid -, the fans gave themselves up to a standing ovation, to the point that the coach, visibly moved, put his hand on his chest and returned the applause. Better times in the past and that the club’s economic crisis, derived from the waste of former president Josep María Bertomeu and the demands of the Fair Play Financial, in addition to the Lithuanian’s high pretensions, broke the spell, a goodbye that since then has been filled with disappointment for the club, with emptiness with Grimau and later with Peñarroya; now focused on getting back on track with Xavi Pascual. But the team neither begins nor ends, already with four straight defeats (Tenerife and Murcia in the league; Olympiacos and Fenerbahçe in Europe), no matter how much this Barça insists on bellowing that it can compete against anyone. Even with the almighty Fenerbahçe (78-82).
As happened in the last European match against Olympiacos, Barça immediately paled in front of the parade of brilliant rivals, since there is no mediocre player in Fenerbahçe. Thus, easily shaky against opponents with more cachet, the Barça team jammed from the periphery – 1 of 8 three-pointers to start – and rushed into the basket, sometimes well-covered the corridors and other times due to sprained wrist syndrome. A delay explained with two slaps in six and a half minutes (both from Vesely) that turned into a succession of slaps, first from Horton Tucker – who fills his hands with points as if nothing had happened, like someone carelessly preparing toast with jam – and then from Biberovic and Baldwin, two snipers who explained why the Turkish team is the best from the three-point line. An abrasive 14-29 that put Barça on the ropes as an appetizer.
Current champion of the Euroleague and leader in it, Fenerbahçe seemed to be playing a schoolyard game – due to the ease with which they got rid of their rival and how easily they saw the basket; not because of his virguería or jokery, something that Jasikevicius, upright and demanding like few others, would never allow, which only Punter wanted to turn around. Clyburn out of tune like rarely before, the locker room leader wanted to put Barça on the map, give some sign of life with 14 points in the quarter. But there was no tutía, too much difference between the protagonists, and 41-53 at the intermission.
Vesely did not make his usual mid-distance shots, nor did Laprovittola find the ramp to the basket or the three-pointers, in addition to Clyburn who crashed relentlessly against the rival wall, the price of inactivity. Little was known about Brizuela and the hard-working Parra, so Punter once again faced the world. And two hands are no match for 10 (or 24 in this case). The orange ball deciphered that, no matter how intense the Barça team was, there was no game that wasn’t a parents against children. The differences were widening (56-73 after the third quarter) and it was just a matter of reaching the end as whole as possible. Or so it seemed until Barça dictated otherwise.
It turns out that this Pascual team believes in impossible things and, above all, does not throw in the towel prematurely, a character that had been lost a long time ago. Thus, again with Punter in charge and with Brizuela already in tune, Barça combusted at the same time as the Palau was on fire. Bite by bite, basket by basket, Barça entered the duel against a rival whose wrist, strangely, shrank. From 61-78 to 73-78. Even then the referees seemed to be in favor of Barcelona, since they changed a foul in attack for another in defense to the anger of Jasikevicius, who signed a protest because that cannot be done unless there is an act of violence involved. But the reaction fell short, it came too late, and Fenerbahçe added another victory for the Azzugrana. Something very similar happened to Madrid, which fell to Panathinaikos at the buzzer (82-81), and then completed the fateful night of Spanish basketball with the defeats of Baskonia against Milan (109-89) and of Valencia against Efes (107-90).
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