• Llull. Take Real Madrid to the Cup final

The classic returns to the Cup final, although this Sunday in a WiZink without fans the famous chants against the two great national basketball players will not be heard.

The eternal battle, the thousands of pending accounts.

Barça returns to the denouement two years later

after fleecing Baskonia in a semifinal that barely had a last hint of emotion, with a display of 'Baskonia character' when it was too late.

[77-68: Narration and statistics]

Because, except for that disconnection in the last act - an inexplicable partial against 2-18 - those of Jasikevicius, a shredder in the Palace, did not give any option, without a trace of the doubts and troubles of the previous night.

He finished with Baskonia to take revenge for that

ACB final lost a few months ago at La Fonteta

and this afternoon (6.30 pm) he will seek the first crown of the Saras era, who is achieving one of the most complicated things in sport: mentalizing a talent roster to defend as if their life depended on it.

When the time came, there was no hint of fatigue, no trace of the maximum effort that the duel with extra time supposed on Friday night to

surrender to Unicaja de Brizuela

.

Or maybe yes, but they let every energy in their legs die with the defensive idea that Jasikevicius has been sowing since he landed.

The idea is that each rival attack is an ordeal, that each basket awarded must be someone else's genius, both for one constant.

The only problem for Barça, apart from the fact that he did not appear too bright in attack, is that, indeed, for a moment he had a genius in front of him.

His name is

Pierriá Henry

and he is the great free verse of European basketball.

With his dreadlocks in the wind and his non-negotiable intensity, he's a baffling base.

Motivated, second to none.

His were 15 of the first 21 points of a Baskonia that could not find more arguments, that suffered horrors in the rebound - up to 11 offensive ones he conceded in the first two quarters - and that, when suddenly the triples arrived, four of Barça's run, was seen with a small slab at halftime (38-27).

His great handicap was as obvious as it was worrying: he could not get a basket in the rival ring.

He was not going to improve when he returned to the changing rooms, when Barça continued to be aggressively active, not leaving a detail to chance, spurred on by

the constant bits of Jasikevicius,

taking off the track a Baskonia that was beginning to sense its own abyss.

The distance skyrocketed (54-37) and every slightest attempt to connect to the battle of Dusko Ivanovic's men was immediately stopped by the Barça machinery, some 3-pointers from Abrines here, some irresistible baskets from Higgins there.

It was just with the maximum (67-47) when Barça relaxed for the first time, when all the exhaustion came at once.

And Baskonia was about to take advantage of it, which rebelled with a devastating partial, with

the points of Jekiri and the appearance of Vildoza

.

To the shore (69-65).

But it wasn't a night of miracles at the WiZink.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

  • ACB League

King's Basketball Cup 2021A Cup without an audience, a Cup without a soul: "It doesn't make sense"

Copa del Rey de Baloncesto 2021The Unicaja of the heroic Darío Brizuela takes Barça to the limit

Euroleague 2020 - 2021Baskonia punishes Real Madrid's 'Tavaresdependence'

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