Mirotic leads the way

One week before the Final Four, Barça defeated Monbus Obradoiro, a step prior to facing Baskonia on Sunday to defend the leadership of the ACB. And they left very good feelings in some aspects, in others some doubts. First the proper names. Mirotic played probably his best game of the season, Nnaji showed that he is at the ACB level and Jokubaitis appeared in the last stretch. The negative face, Jan Vesely. With sharp lower back pain, he left injured. And then the collective. Wrong from the triple, they complicated the game more than necessary. Aspects that in a Euroleague semifinal can give them a much higher bill. Monbus Obradoiro played a good first and last quarter, but was overwhelmed by the enormous performance of Mirotic (27 points, 10 rebounds and a PIR of 40).

MonbUs Obradoiro surprised the Palau, and also Barça, with a very solid first quarter. The recipe, in the end, was simple: defend the painting well. Something that is not usually enough against Barça, but if it is combined with a bad day for the Barça players, it can work. And Barça’s percentage in the first period was the worst possible, zero out of six in triples. The first advantage was built by Blazevic, but it was based on the control of the defensive rebound.

If Barça was no longer comfortable with the starting theorists, less so with the substitutes. Sanli is not at Vesely’s level, perhaps it is not something that can be demanded of him, nor is Jokubaitis at Satoransky’s, at least in directing. The Lithuanian missed too much, including free kicks, to bring the score to 15-21. And then, the worst possible news. With a week to go before the Final Four, Vesely withdrew injured. With acute lower back pain, which does not seem to be more serious, the Czech no longer participated in the rest of the game.

Barça continued to insist on three without much success, finally one entered, while Blazevic kept the visitor’s advantage alive. Minimal, extinguished after 16 minutes, thanks in part to the excellent defensive work of Nnaji, with four plugs. The Nigerian, in the absence of Vesely, gave the callous in what was one of his best Barca performances. The shooters, on the other hand, did not have their day. The 4 of 17 triples at halftime weighed against Barça, who went to the locker room with a slight advantage (35-32).

If Nnaji’s minutes punished Obradoiro, those of Mirotic condemned them. Important as always, relevant as usual, the Hispano-Montenegrin continued to be clairvoyant and extremely successful. He led an excellent set for the Catalans, despite the fact that the miss from the triple was still important. The visitors with the most problems in attack could do nothing against a gale called Mirotic.

After a convincing third quarter, with 15 points without a mistake from Mirotic, the game was set to end at the start of the last quarter (68-50). Or so it seemed. Obradoiro signed a great partial to hold on to the game against the relaxation of Barça. Jasikevicius stopped him and, visibly angry, he scolded his players. And it worked thanks to Jokubaitis. The match began with an exchange of baskets in which both Obradoiro and the Lithuanian point guard played their best offensive minutes of the entire afternoon. With two remaining the victory was in danger (84-77), but it was only a scare.

barca

Statistics

twenty Nicholas Laprovittola
13 Thomas Satoransky
33 Nikola Mirotic
twenty-one Alex Abrines
6 Jan Veseley
31 Rokas Jokubaitis
10 Nikola Kalinic
5 Sertac Sanli
24 Kyle Kuric
46 james naji
8 Sergi Martinez
23 Mike Toby

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
twenty Nicholas Laprovittola	25	9	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	1/2	4/6	0/4	1	2	3
13 Thomas Satoransky	twenty-one	6	2	0	2	5	2	1	0	2/2	2/4	0/2	4	3	9
33 Nikola Mirotic	twenty	27	10	4	6	3	0	0	0	5/5	5/6	4/6	5	2	40
twenty-one Alex Abrines	17	12	3	0	3	3	2	0	0	0/0	0/1	4/7	0	2	10
6 Jan Veseley	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	2	-1
31 Rokas Jokubaitis	twenty-one	9	0	0	0	4	0	1	0	1/3	4/7	0/1	3	2	9
10 Nikola Kalinic	twenty	eleven	2	1	1	0	0	1	0	1/1	2/2	2/5	1	0	12
5 Sertac Sanli	twenty	9	5	2	3	1	0	1	0	5/5	23	0/4	5	1	fifteen
24 Kyle Kuric	17	4	2	0	2	1	0	0	0	4/4	0/1	0/3	2	0	5
46 james naji	16	7	3	2	1	0	0	1	4	1/2	3/3	0/0	2	2	14
8 Sergi Martinez	10	0	4	2	2	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/3	0/0	2	4	-1
23 Mike Toby	4	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	0	1

Monbus Obradoiro

Statistics

30 kassius robertson
1 Thomas Scrub
eleven Mark Blazevic
9 Leo Westerman
0 Edgar Vicedo
93 Alex Suarez
23 Philip Scrub
32 Ruben Guerrero
5 Fernando Zurbriggen
33 Alvaro Munoz
24 David Walker
19 santiago peace

Statistics

	Min	pts	RT	RO	DR	Ast	Per	rec	Tap	T1	T2	T3	FR	CF	Val
30 kassius robertson	27	19	2	0	2	1	3	2	0	5/6	4/8	2/5	7	2	17
1 Thomas Scrub	23	7	4	0	4	0	1	0	0	0/1	23	1/1	1	2	7
eleven Mark Blazevic	22	fifteen	4	1	3	1	3	0	0	1/2	7/11	0/0	5	3	12
9 Leo Westerman	twenty	13	2	0	2	5	2	0	0	2/2	1/3	3/3	3	4	fifteen
0 Edgar Vicedo	14	2	2	0	2	2	0	0	0	0/0	1/2	0/1	0	2	2
93 Alex Suarez	23	3	3	0	3	0	0	1	0	0/0	0/0	1/2	0	2	4
23 Philip Scrub	18	7	1	0	1	2	2	0	0	2/2	1/6	1/2	1	1	1
32 Ruben Guerrero	17	2	5	2	3	0	1	0	1	0/0	1/2	0/0	1	4	3
5 Fernando Zurbriggen	14	9	2	0	2	2	1	2	0	23	2/4	1/2	2	4	8
33 Alvaro Munoz	eleven	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/0	0	1	-1
24 David Walker	6	0	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	0/0	0/1	0/0	0	0	2
19 santiago peace	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0/0	0/0	0/1	0	0	-1