• Barça: finish with Burgos' dream

Old Dusko returned home for Christmas, when things in Vitoria were not taking off with Perasovic. Always to the rescue, now with his unmistakable ponytail. The methods of sergeant to recover the identity, to make Baskonia competitive, that he was not even to get into the Cup. And there you have them, back to an ACB final, the ninth in its history , after battling copper in a dog-friendly match with Valencia at La Fonteta, resolved in a heart attack finale in which Loyd missed three times that would have brought glory to the locals. [73-75: Narration and Statistics]

It was a defensive recital around the locker room that rescued a Baskonia that had dawned briskly. Barely 31 points were awarded to Valencia, who saw all the doors to the final being closed one by one, as the people of Vitoria were growing now with the later appearance of Shields. Before, Shengelia and especially Dragic , had been the props of Dusko. Still, the ardor of both took the battle to the finish line, with too many failures there, like those of Shengelia himself (free throws, offensive foul ...). It was an ending without heroes, the kind in which nobody seems to win.

It was soon seen that it was not going to be the night of Baskonia, that he was going to have to roll up his sleeves to succeed, stuck in the revolution of a party whose intensity was overflowing, totally dependent on Toko Shengelia, which only in the appearance of Zoran Dragic in the second quarter (14 of 21 points there from the Slovenian) was going to have a hand to pull the car. It turned out to be an erratic, blocked first part, of shorter duration than basketball. But Valencia felt more comfortable in that mud.

Labeyrie injury

A arrene of Doornekamp supposed the first impulse of the premises in the marker. It was a more choral work that of the Taronjas, who clearly dominated the rebound, because the rings in this Final Phase are a thing of Mike Tobey , a colossus, passing over the muscles of Eric, of Diop, who interposed in his path. With a triple from Labeyrie, in the same move in which the Frenchman twisted his ankle alarmingly - he did not return to the track - Valencia put the maximum (41-30).

Ivanovic looked for the reaction around the corner, stirring up a group that didn't seem his. He got it supported by Dragic, absolute protagonist. Even when two triples in a row (San Emeterio and Dubljevic) cut their progression, they answered with a 0-7, showing that they were fully in the bid, to the point of getting ahead after a long time, on the scoreboard (55-56 ) and, above all, in the sensations.

The wrists that did nothing shrank, now they were released with danger. And vice versa. Valencia missed the push of Alberto Abalde , his best man in the Final Phase until he fell with abdominal discomfort. Also the presence of Tobey, loaded with fouls. And, of course, the push of a Fonteta in which the silences deepened the doubts (despite the packed box). Vildoza, Shields and Polonara shot at the people of Vitoria.

But the real key, as so often, was defense. Now, it was the defense of a team from Ivanovic. From Sergeant Dusko. And against that aggressiveness Ponsarnau had to find a loophole, a hero, because each basket was an odyssey. Saint Emeterius seemed so, eternal. But the hot ball went to the star. And Jordan Loyd failed, orphaning Valencia from what would have been his third ACB final.

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