Nothing was at stake for Barça, a lot for Surne Bilbao Basket, but in professional sports, willpower is not enough. The people from Bilbao came out of the match well and fought for part of it, but they couldn’t do anything against one of the best attacks in Europe. With sharp shooters, Mirotic as the standard and a lot of contribution from the bench, Barça was unstoppable. In an impeccable third quarter, the azulgranas practically ended Bilbao’s aspirations of entering the playoffs.
Barça took a few minutes to carburete, to warm up, to stand up to Bilbao Basket. The visitors got everything right at the beginning and, thanks to an excellent Ángel Delgado, they did not miss a single shot. Neither the simple ones allowed by Barça nor the most worked ones. The little exterior success of the azulgrana did the rest (4-14).
After the obligatory time out, which a coach like Jasikevicius was not going to let pass, the azulgranas improved a lot. Especially in defense, where Bilbao Basket’s skill ended, but also on the offensive side. The entrance of Abrines and Higgins provided dynamism to the culé attack, which moved the ball much better, finding the released shooter (16-16). Led by Jokubaitis, Barça generated the first advantage of the match and with Laprovittola on the court he finished propping it up. The break was reached with the maximum difference in favor of the locals (43-35).
As they left the locker room, bad news began to arrive for Surne Bilbao Basket. The first, that Barça refined the outside shot. The second, that Mirotic continued to add with the usual apparent ease. And to add insult to injury, Barça controlled the rebound well both in defense and attack. With the score at 59-41 a little less than 15 minutes from the end of the match, the company was already very complicated for Bilbao. They made a threat to get closer, but they kept raining triples. Barça’s attack was devastating (73-50).
The azulgranas continued with their particular party from 6’75 comfortably maintaining an advantage of close to 20 points. The less usual entered giving Jasikevicius rest to the heavyweights. In 10 days the Euroleague is played. Bilbao, at the expense of what Gran Canaria loses today to maintain an option to get into the top eight.