Barça also knows how to win without brilliance in Europe

• Euroleague Classification

Barça also knows how to win without brilliance. Before a tough ASVEL Villeurbanne, the Svetislav Pesic team was able to impose itself almost by inertia, with a more choral game than usual. His great star, Nikola Mirotic , did not sign on this occasion a great scoring performance, much as the cold statistic placed him again as the most prominent of his team. More decisive, however, would be an Abrines who knew how to score tremendously necessary triples at the most appropriate times. And, as usual, they would also contribute their grain of sand both Cory Higgins and Brandon Davies , although only by gusts, to seal the triumph by 80-67 of the Barcelona players. [Narration and statistics]

The Villeurbanne resisted with nails and teeth to become the scapegoat for the stropic Unicaja made in the Palau last weekend. And he almost got it. The French team managed to keep glued almost to the Barça-based triples for much of the game and already from the first quarter, with Maledon and Lighty initially intractable from beyond the 6.75 line. On the part of the locals, meanwhile, he missed the usual glaring outbursts of Mirotic, who failed to hit the triples despite his attempts. Nor did he seem to have Higgins all day. But even then, both would be key for Barça to take a partial victory by only three points at the end of a first period in which the Serbian coach gave young Leandro Bolmaro minutes to start.

The French were very capable of continuing to survive on a triple basis at the start of the second quarter, despite Mirotic initially threatening to breach with an action of two plus one. They even matched Barça on the scoreboard (27-27). Pesic, however, sought and managed to turn things around with a dead time after which Davies, with a spectacular action and a great mate and another equally effective, began to mark distances in the light. It didn't matter that the Villeurbanne tried to poke his head again to shake things up. There would appear Abrines, with two consecutive triples, to mark the maximum difference until then of the premises, 12 points (48-36) that the promising Maledon, in an action very protested by the Barca coach, would finally leave at 48-38 to send The game to rest.

Villeurbanne Rebellion

Barça managed very soon to mark distances on the scoreboard in the restart. In this case, by the hand of a triple of Delaney and a previous launch that also touched the two points and what seemed to be the awakening of Mirotic and Higgins, but that did not have all the continuity that the Barcelonaists would have wanted. Those of Pesic came to leave by 17 points ahead on the scoreboard, but their lack of success in free throws and an excess of precipitation would end up allowing Villeurbanne to cut 11 points of their advantage to leave for the fourth period to only seven points away on the scoreboard. Lighty and Kahudi would be absolutely decisive in the new reaction of an ASVEL that reached the last quarter with more than recovered morals (63-56) and partially defeating Barça for the first time (15-18).

The last period had a strange tone. At times, neither Barça seemed able to leave completely on the scoreboard nor Villeurbanne, to seriously threaten his advantage. The Barcelona players, nevertheless, in the hands of two Aprines triples, would manage to plant themselves in the final moments of the game comfortably installed in an 18-point watchtower that the French team would no longer be able to narrow as dangerously as in other phases of the match . Those of Pesic, finally, took a victory more worked than the score would say (80-67) to maintain, again, its firm step in Europe.

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