Euroleague working day 8
In their most complete game of the Euroleague, Baskonia crushed the poorest Barcelona of the season, which arrived in Vitoria as the clear favorite but left with reasons to reflect. After a first half in which Barça maintained vital signs for very few minutes, the differences that their rival achieved were insurmountable for Grimau’s team, which did almost nothing right.
The Buesa clash began evenly until the score was 10-12 for Barça, who had had Da Silva as a catalyst. But Grimau’s team caught the flu, and after an 11-0 run for Baskonia, the perspective of the game changed. The Vitorian team was charged with energy while Barcelona deflated and during the rest of the first half only Ivanovic’s team was seen on the field. The Barcelona fans were subdued, very lax in defense, weak in attack, they neither pressed (seven fouls in the first half), nor were they successful in shooting, the complete opposite of Baskonia, happy in the triple and firm in containment.
Barcelona went into the break with only 29 points and very bad feelings, the opposite of those of the Vitorians, who after losing in extra time against Obradoiro, seemed fresh as lettuce. The doubt was whether the Vitorians could keep up. When Laprovittola scored five consecutive starting points, Ivanovic’s men seemed to hesitate, but the coach stopped the game, and upon the return, things began to fall into place. The difference, which had regularly exceeded 20 points, was reduced to 16 on a couple of occasions, but Barcelona played in fits and starts, and in Baskonia, the inspiration of Markus Howard (26 points), Miller-Mcintyre (20) and Moneke (19), solved all the obstacles.
In the last quarter, Barça gave up, Grimau sat down and watched as Vitoria’s success led them to reach 30 points difference with 3.41 minutes remaining, an unexpected and unprecedented distance in the duels between both teams in Europe. In the end, with the obvious relaxation of the locals, it remained at 23.
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