Matchday 15 Classification
A fierce Maccabi, tremendously rocky, managed to despair and surprise Barça at the Palau.
The Israelis were able to exploit their strong defensive work and their role as top rebounders to cancel the contributions of the Barça stars and condemn
Sarunas Jasikevicius' team
to their second defeat at home in the Euroleague.
And, incidentally, to give up the lead alone to CSKA.
[Narration and statistics (67-68)]
The Israeli team made things very difficult for Barça from the first quarter.
By means of a tremendously supportive defense, he managed that the Catalans did not feel comfortable at any time.
This explains why they failed to pass 12 points in the first ten minutes.
Perhaps, the contribution of
Brandon Davies
, low at the last minute due to injury, would have made a difference.
On the other side of the court, meanwhile, the visitors shot especially
Dragan Bender
and
Othello Hunter
to dismantle the Barça fans and sign a 12-17 run.
The entrance of
Kyle Kuric
and his habitual aim in the triples invited to think about a prompt reaction of the Barça.
Maccabi, however, insisted on their defensive arguments, leading the duel to one physical clash after another.
In this case, the Israeli team also threw an eminently choral game in attack to try to keep their distance.
Punish mistakes
But an improvement of the locals in defense, on the one hand, and their forcefulness, which would be reflected in several personals with free throws in the final moments, allowed the locals to equalize the score and shyly leave with an advantage to rest (32- 30) after an action by
Nikola Mirotic
that Hunter would herd out of time.
Barça improved their offensive performance at the restart, but also slightly worsened behind.
The Maccabi, meanwhile, through especially
Tyler Dorsey
and Bender, managed to punish the mistakes and win again in the set by a meager 22-23 that would take the game to the last quarter with a 54-53.
Those of Jasikevicius, in this case, would find in
Artem Pustovyi
their best argument, but they would not be able to open a gap that would invite them to think about a comfortable outcome.
The appearance of
Nick Calathes
, when things got worse in the fourth quarter, with a triple and an assist to Kuric so that the Indiana player also scored from three, brought good omens.
Just for a moment.
Indiana's wrist would fail on two of those shots that he does not usually forgive from beyond 6.75 and Mirotic would also miss two free throws.
A string of failures that would cause the Catalans, who got into bonuses too early, finally crashed against the Hebrew defense.
Corey Higgins'
last triple
was rejected by the rim.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Nikola Mirotic
sports
basketball
Euroleague
Euroleague Mirotic and Higgins lead Barça to victory against a tough Khimki
Euroleague 2020 - 2021An extraordinary Llull breaks the spell of Asvel
Euroleague 2020 - 2021 Barça gets back on track against a fierce Zalgiris (62-73)
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