Euroleague Day 8
Basconia
Barca
Chima Moneke celebrates a triple during the Euroleague game against Barça.L. Rico (EFE)
In their most complete game of the Euroleague, Baskonia defeated the weakest Barcelona of the season, who arrived in Vitoria as clear favorites but had reason to think. After a first half in which Barça maintained vital functions for just a few minutes, the differences made by their rivals were insurmountable for Grimau’s team, which did almost nothing right.
The Buesa duel started evenly until it was 10-12 for Barça, who had Da Silva as a catalyst. But Grimau’s team came down with the flu and after an 11-0 run for Baskonia, the perspective of the game changed. The Vitoria team were full of energy, while Barcelona deflated and only Ivanovic’s team were seen on the pitch for the rest of the first half. The Barcelona fans were subdued, very lax in defense, weak in attack, they neither pushed (seven fouls in the first half) nor had success in shooting, the exact opposite of Baskonia, happy in threes and firm in containment.
Barcelona went into the break with only 29 points and very bad feelings, in contrast to those of the Vitorians, who looked fresh as lettuce after the extra-time defeat against Obradoiro. The doubt was whether the Vitorians could keep up. When Laprovittola scored five starting points in a row, Ivanovic’s men seemed to hesitate, but the coach stopped the game and everything began to fall into place after the return. The difference, which had regularly been over 20 points, narrowed a few times to 16, but Barcelona played irregularly and in Baskonia the inspiration of Markus Howard (26 points), Miller-Mcintyre (20) and Moneke (19), all obstacles solved.
In the final quarter, Barça gave up, Grimau sat down and watched as Vitoria’s success led them to reach a difference of 30 points with 3.41 minutes left, an unexpected and unprecedented gap in the duels between the two teams in Europe. Ultimately, the score remained at 23 with the locals clearly relaxing.
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