A

Calathes

capable of breaking his own record with 15 assists (the maximum ever achieved by a Barça player was already in his hands, with 14), a

brilliant

Higgins

(18 points, 28 PIR) and an

always lethal

Kuric

in the triples (18 points, PIR of 19) condemned a Khimki to his eleventh consecutive loss, who found especially in

Shved

, top scorer of the duel (23 points), the best way to try to resist an inevitable final destination.

Barça, still without

Mirotic

or

Davies

, achieved a 75-87 that allows them to continue going strong after going through a brief bump in Europe.

The first quarter was an exchange of blows in which Khimki exploited a tremendous hit on 3s.

An aspect in which a Shved capable of making almost impossible shots and a

Booker

who became his best squire

shone

.

Barça, meanwhile, found in Calathes' assists their best argument to stay in the game.

And he could even have gone two points up at the end of the period, but Kuric's in extremis launch was invalidated by the referees and the first ten minutes ended with an eloquent 26-26 on the scoreboard.

The one from Indiana, precisely, with his lethal aim in the triples, would be decisive at the start of the second period for Barça to try to open a gap against

a Khimki who fought tooth and nail

to stay as close as possible to the Catalans in the bright.

Shved, with the support in this case of McCollum and Bertans, returned to shine for the locals, but could not do much to prevent Jasikevicius's men from going to rest six points up on the scoreboard (48-54).

Thanks, above all, to the scoring contributions of Kuric, Higgins and Smits and the capacity for the last pass of a Calathes who continued to display his repertoire of genius and added four more assists to the six with which he had closed the first period.

The difference could have been even greater, but it was Hanga who this time saw a basket on the horn finally invalidated by the referees.

Barça finally managed to open a considerable gap in the third quarter.

Khimki suddenly began to miss seemingly easy baskets.

The only thing that prevented his fall from happening much earlier was that

the Catalans got into bonus too quickly

.

But, as soon as Higgins decided to tighten the nuts on his rivals,

Jasikevicius's team

managed to leave up to 14 points (59-73) in a score that the Russians would narrow shyly just before reaching the last period (60-73).

In the first minutes of the final quarter, Barça knew how to take advantage of the apparent laziness of its rival and the rebirth of

Abrines

, author of two consecutive triples, to place 20 points above in the light (67-87).

A slight Barça respite and Shved's shots from beyond 6.75 made up the score to a final 75-87 that further sinks Khimki into the table.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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