The curse of the last quarter punished Barça again, this time with the fourth defeat in the Euroleague (74-75) on the day they could establish themselves in second place. Not even Nikola Mirotic's return against the Blaugrana fans (17 points, with a PIR of 21, the best) could prevent the Catalans' stumble against a much more solid ASVEL Villeurbanne, who turned the game around in the last 10 minutes with a 12-18 final.
The downturn in play and performance of the blaugrana in the last quarters is recurring. The statistics do not deceive: in the Euroleague, Barça have lost 10 of the last 12 quarters, and in the ACB League, 4 of the 9. In total, 14 of the 21. Always the same trend: lack of intensity, errors, mistakes, and the party that was on track either loses it or ends up suffering. In front of ASVEL he had a defeat, deserved, because he saw it coming.
“We don't play hard basketball; we had a lot of losses and we didn't play with intensity, we have to come back from this bad situation”, analyzed Saras Jasikevicius at the end of the game, which he had to face without the sensitive competition of Cory Higgins, Abrines (both with low back pain) and Da Silva (flu). .
The first quarter could not have been more deplorable for a Barça that in theory had to make the Palau strong, after having added five consecutive victories at home in the Euroleague. However, the unpublished quintet of Jasikevicius turned out fatally, with Mirotic returning before his fans for the first time after almost half a year, 177 days, absent due to injury.
Fall's rebounds (10 in the first quarter), as well as 5 points, and Mathews' 6 riddled Barça, who looked down 11 (8-19) after 8 minutes and Saras had to call the first timeout to stop the bleeding The 0/5 in triples heralded another fateful night like that of Obradoiro (on Sunday, when they missed 19 triples in a row).
Kalinic and Jokubaitis made up the deficit to close the first quarter (15-21) and the Serbian broke the streak from 6.75 to open the new set. But it was Mirotic, with a 4-0 run, who gave the blaugrana the first advantage, at 24-23, which consolidated the comeback with a 16-4 run.
Once Barça took the initiative on the scoreboard, the man in the second quarter was Kyle Kuric, who with four three-pointers (in 6 attempts) maintained the momentary lead (46-40) over ASVEL that showed why they were the team with the Best defense in the Euroleague. The Blaugrana team gained defensive consistency and added Mirotic to the offensive cause with 8 points. The partial of the sleeve invited optimism: a resounding 31-19, despite the wide French dominance in the area (19 rebounds to 13).
When Barça racked up 6 points when they reappeared from the locker room (4 from Mirotic, 2 from Satoransky with stellar assistance from Kalinic), it seemed that Jasikevicius's group reached its boiling point. The 52-40, maximum local income, and the 17 points of a Moritic who plugged in presaged that Barça was heading towards the festival. But not. He faltered again in defense, doubts arose in the shot, and ASVEL nailed him a 5-13 run to come within just 4 points (57-53) and tighten the score and the confidence of Palau, who saw complicate the placidity of the triumph.
In the last quarter, Barça, far from straightening the course, began to sink at the start with a 2-7 lead culminated by Fall, with the 17th rebound, to put the tie at 64 with 6m39s to go. There began another game of zero. Whoever failed the least would take the duel. And the Blaugrana team did not have a cool head and repeated the usual mistakes: shooting error, defensive weakness, losses...
He missed two triples in a row (Kuric and Laprovittola), Vesely committed a foul in attack, Kuric missed a tap, then Laprovittola missed another triple (0/4), and Sanli another. They both made up for it by scoring one each to make it 72-71 and reach the penultimate attack with 1m08s. The Argentine played it again from 6.75 and missed, while De Colo scored a 1 1 (72-73 with 42 seconds to go). In the last Blaugrana attack, Laprovittola once again took responsibility and did not fail (74-73) with 24 seconds remaining.
But in the last French attack, Barça defended poorly and De Colo scored masterfully from six meters suspended to make it 74-75. With 1.3 seconds, Saras's board did not find the miracle key. Lapro's pass to Vesely under the rim didn't work. Barça's fourth defeat was a reality the day they could get second.
Barça: Satoransky (6), Laprovittola (14), Tobey (4), Mirotic (17), Sanli (5); Jokubaitis (4), Kalinic (5), Vesely (6), Nnaji (0), Kuric (13), Paulí (0).
ASVEL Villeurbanne: Mathews (8), De Colo (19), Obashoan (6), Noua (5), Fall (14); Lighty (4), Diot (0), Kahudi (7), Tyus (2), Jackson-Cartwright (10).
Referees: Pukl, Kardum, Rossi.
Quarters: 15-21, 31-19, 16-17, 12-18.
Court: Palau Blaugrana.
