Coup of authority of Barça in Belgrade

Of the four games that Barça had left to close the regular season, the one in Partizán was the most complicated on paper. And against a team on the rise, in a hostile environment, the Catalans added a key victory that leaves them on a silver platter to be seeded and, therefore, have the field factor in their favor in the quarterfinal tie. Another very good performance from Mirotic and Vesely, not bad from Satoransky and Abrines and joined by Laprovittola. The Argentine, after a few more discreet weeks, against the Serbs was again the one from the beginning of the season. The excellent defense, especially in the second half, was also a decisive element in the victory.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the atmosphere in Belgrade’s Stark Arena is the best in the EuroLeague. 20,041 people, a competition record, who celebrated each robbery, each assist and each triple as if it were a decisive basket. An audience that gave wings to Partizán, equaling the good start of Barça. After Laprovittola’s two initial three-pointers, excellent news for the Catalans more for the sensations than for the points, the Serbs stood up with a leading Punter and an intimidating Lessort. The inaccuracies of the Serbs and the fluidity of Barça kept them ahead (21-25), but from the beginning it was sensed that it would be a very competitive game. Barça’s interiors, strong in defense and skilful in attack, were decisive in the first quarter.

If the man in the first quarter was Laprovittola, the man in the second was Exum. The ex of the Barça caused a lot of problems to Higgins, his defender, and therefore to all the Barcelona. He gave Partizán the first lead (29-27), which continued to expand in the first five minutes of the quarter. With his classic penetrations, but also with two triples on the boat. Barça had a hard time, with too many losses and being unable to overcome the local defense. Jasikevicius stopped it at the risk that the Serbs would break the game. However, the visitors recovered before the break. With the headlines back on track and, curiously, with Lapro as a base. The Argentine added 14 points before the break, 10 Exum, for the 45-44 with which they reached the middle of the match.

It’s been a few games since Abrines has won the game in the starting five against Kalinic and at the start of the third quarter he showed why. A three-pointer, a key rebound and the ability to punt every shot provided Barça’s biggest advantage so far (47-55). Vesely propped her up. With his mid-range shots or his one-handed dunks, but also with that special connection he has with Satoransky. A ‘Sato’ who is one of the best triple shooters in the competition when standing. If we add to this more activity from Mirotic, the Barça advantage skyrocketed (49-61).

However, not everything was good news for Barça. Some arbitration decisions fired up the public, some object fell on the track, Barça defended the direct blocks badly and Higgins’ minutes didn’t add up. The North American seems different after his physical problems, although Jasikevicius’ confidence in him seems unshakable (58-66).

With about 15 minutes to go, Partizán raised the physical bar. Harder, more protests and more points. Higgins continued to play a disastrous match, with a PIR of minus three in 15 minutes, and If it hadn’t been for Mirotic’s three-pointers, Barça would have lost the advantage. But they entered, also one far from Laprovittola, reaching the last three minutes with the game in their hands (70-78). And it is that Exum is very good, he has a splendid scoring ability, but he is not LeBron James either. Penetrations from him were pretty much all Partizan had to offer in attack. An excess of individualism that was not effective in the final stretch.

partizan

Statistics

2 Zach LeDay
26 Mathias Lessort
7 kevin pointer
twenty-one James Nunnally
41 Yam Madar
eleven Dante Liman Exum
10 Ioannis Papapetrou
4 Alexa Avramovic
9 Alen Smailagic
32 urostrifunovic
33 Danilo Andjusic
1 Tristan Vukcevic

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
2 Zach LeDay	33	10	5	1	4	0	0	2	0	2/2	4/8	0/1	2	2	12
26 Mathias Lessort	29	5	6	3	3	0	0	0	0	1/2	23	0/0	2	3	8
7 kevin pointer	26	16	2	0	2	2	0	0	1	3/3	5/11	1/6	3	3	9
twenty-one James Nunnally	14	5	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0/0	1/3	1/2	1	1	4
41 Yam Madar	13	6	2	1	1	0	0	0	1	0/0	3/6	0/0	2	1	6
eleven Dante Liman Exum	26	24	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	7/8	4/6	3/5	8	2	25
10 Ioannis Papapetrou	19	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0/0	1/4	0/0	2	2	0
4 Alexa Avramovic	16	6	2	0	2	1	0	1	0	0/0	3/4	0/1	1	5	4
9 Alen Smailagic	eleven	6	2	2	0	0	1	1	0	1/2	1/2	1/4	2	2	3
32 urostrifunovic	4	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	0
33 Danilo Andjusic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0
1 Tristan Vukcevic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0

barca

Statistics

twenty Nicholas Laprovittola
33 Nikola Mirotic
twenty-one Alex Abrines
6 Jan Veseley
13 Thomas Satoransky
5 Sertac Sanli
22 Cory Higgins
10 Nikola Kalinic
31 Rokas Jokubaitis
23 Mike Toby
1 oscar da silva
24 Kyle Kuric

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
twenty Nicholas Laprovittola	32	25	0	0	0	7	2	0	0	11/13	1/2	4/5	8	2	32
33 Nikola Mirotic	30	19	8	2	6	1	3	1	1	5/6	4/5	2/4	7	3	27
twenty-one Alex Abrines	24	5	3	1	2	1	1	0	0	0/0	1/2	1/2	1	4	3
6 Jan Veseley	24	14	6	1	5	4	1	0	1	0/0	7/10	0/0	0	4	16
13 Thomas Satoransky	twenty	10	3	0	3	5	0	0	0	0/0	2/5	2/2	1	3	12
5 Sertac Sanli	fifteen	2	3	1	2	1	1	0	0	0/0	1/1	0/0	0	3	2
22 Cory Higgins	fifteen	5	1	1	0	0	4	0	0	0/0	1/2	1/3	1	3	-3
10 Nikola Kalinic	14	4	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	2/2	1/3	0/0	2	0	6
31 Rokas Jokubaitis	9	2	2	1	1	4	1	0	0	2/2	0/1	0/0	2	0	8
23 Mike Toby	6	3	2	0	2	1	1	0	0	0/0	0/0	1/1	0	1	4
1 oscar da silva	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	1	-2
24 Kyle Kuric	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	0	0