Barça beat Olympiacos with solvency, but also with a very misleading score: 90-80. Again, he found in Mirotic (21 points, 33 valuation) his most decisive player, shielded in this case especially by Kuric (18 points, 18 valuation) and Hanga (14 points, 21 valuation). The Montenegrin Hispanic also established a new personal record: 15 rebounds, four in attack and 11 in defense. The Greeks fought the unspeakable in the first part, especially in the second quarter, in which they were even able to get ahead on the scoreboard, but lowered their arms a little in the second and did not really disturb the triumph options of the premises. In what was foreseen as a calculator game in hand, with the possibility that the Catalans would perch as leaders if they managed to win by 23 or more points and that the veteran Vassilis Spanoulis would surpass Juan Carlos Navarro as the top historical scorer of the Euroleague if it added 12 or more points, it ended up in the drawer. In both cases, it will be time to wait for next occasions.

The first part did not invite, much less, to think that we were going to attend another evening of showcasing for the locals. And that Mirotic, to begin with, signed again a great first quarter in which Barça, very much in defense, managed to prevail over Olympiacos by a score at the end shorter than it could have been. A loss of Delaney's ball, in the last attack, allowed Cherry to make 20-12 what could have been a 22-10 for Pesic. The Catalans had dominated the rebound (13 in total, nine in defense and four in attack) against an opponent who initially had his main lifeguard in Printezis. The Greeks had come to the Palau to wage war. And they would demonstrate it, exceedingly, in the second quarter.

There they turned the tables. Olympiacos, before a club that got mad again and again by some arbitration decisions, was able to turn the scoreboard. In this case, from the hand of a lethal Vezenkov and a Papanikolaou always motivated how much it is time to step on the Palau Blaugrana, both perfectly complemented by Rubit . Davies , on the other hand, was able to combine a spectacular action with an unsportsmanlike one that, in large part, cemented the takeoff of the Greek group. At the end of the fourth, however, the Barcelona players were able to control the damage suffered and managed to leave at rest with a shy advantage on the scoreboard (40-39) after what, on the other hand, had also been an entire scoring exhibition of the Greeks. The partial score, 20-27, speaks very clearly about it.

After the break, Mirotic put on the work overalls again to open the gap in the scoreboard. His performance shone in the middle of an exchange of triples between them in which Barça would end up imposing itself with some forcefulness. Above all, thanks to two launches from beyond the 6.75 line of a Malcolm Delaney specialist in playing it in seemingly very complicated actions. The Blaugrana takeoff was not even stopped by the disqualification, after two consecutive techniques, of a Svetislav Pesic that left the track in applause. His would eventually return to Olympiacos the score received in the second quarter (29-19 at the end of the third period) and would go to the last quarter with everything in favor to take the win definitively, but apparently far from adding the win for more than 23 points needed to get to the top of the table.

Appearances, despite everything, tend to be terribly misleading. The Catalans, with Mirotic, Davies, Delaney and especially, Kuric, scored a partial 11-2 that allowed them to place a maximum difference of 20 points just under five minutes to the end of the game. But, in spite of everything, the locals would end up being able in part to excess their desire in the final stretch. Something that Reed , with six consecutive points, would end up punishing to gradually lead the outcome of the duel to an insufficient, for his interests, advantage of 14 points for those of Pesic. And, with it, to a final give and take in which neither the local victory was endangered nor was there a real option of finally assaulting the leadership, with a final score of 90-80 to close the match. The head of the Catalans, perhaps, was already partly thinking of the great duel against Real Madrid in the ACB this Sunday.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Real Madrid
  • Euroleague
  • ACB League
  • basketball

Euroleague CSKA assaults the knife Palau

Euroleague 2019 - 2020 Campazzo does not allow gray nights: another recital of passes to knock down Milan

ACBCauseur and Thompkins glare at Betis