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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