The Palau can now boast of its particular 5-0, chained against Zalgiris, Barça's fifth consecutive victory at home in a streak that began, of course, against Real Madrid. The Barça team is confirmed as the Whites' main pursuer in the Euroleague after what ended up being an overwhelming victory against the Lithuanians, much more suffered on the pitch than on the scoreboard.
Barça burst into the game like a sperm whale in a neighborhood pool, destroying everything that was put in front of it. In less than four minutes, Vesely crowned a 13-0 lead to open the duel and drive a Palau crazy due to the massive presence of screaming Lithuanians in the stands. Despite everything, the newly arrived Trinchieri did not flinch too much, as if aware that his team was going to react. He must have had a crystal ball.
Jokubaitis stretched to 28-12 in the first score of the second quarter and Zalgiris seemed about to throw in the towel. In the midst of a crisis, forced to change coaches, and facing a fierce rival, the duel seemed more than on track for Barça. But the disconnections that had plagued Grimau's team during the first months of the competition and that seemed to have disappeared returned in an incomprehensible way. The azulgranas disappeared from the park for a few minutes and when they decided to return they already had the score against them. After a choral reaction and a controversial unsportsmanlike foul against Kalinic, Ulanovas managed to give the Lithuanians the first lead of the night (30-32) after a 4-20 run.
Barça's return to the game was written by Brizuela, rescuing the pride of his team with several actions of merit and determination so that the Blaugrana could head to the locker room with a certain serenity (44-37). Already at that time, the referees were having too much of a role, extending the duel excessively, their performance far from what was advisable for the spectacle.
Barça cemented its advantage after leaving the locker room with a Parker who continues to grow and a Brizuela in a trance, who almost tripled his best score of the season in the Euroleague. After a technical foul against Grimau at the beginning of the last act, with the coach saturated by the show of whistles, Brizuela finished securing the victory, drawing a few last minutes to enjoy in which Paulí signed the maximum (87-66) and even the beardless Sarr and Jakucuionis entered the track
It was the fifth in a row at the Palau, four of them from the Euroleague to consolidate Barça in a classification that guarantees work for cardiologists.
91. Barça (26 18 24 23): Satoransky (12), Brizuela (24), Kalinic (8), Parker (18), Vesely (8) -starting team-, Hernangómez (8), Jokubaitis (5), Parra (2), Da Silva (2), Paulí (4), Jakucionis (2) and Sarr (0).
73. Zalgiris (12 25 20 16): Evans (14), Sumner (15), Ulanovas (7), Smits (5), Birutis (9) -equipo inicial-, Dimsa (2), Manek (10), Hayes (2), Lekavicius (3) and Hollins (6).
Referees: Carmelo Paternico (ITA), Igor Dragojevic (MON) and Hugues Thepenier (FRA). They called out an unsportsmanlike foul against the local Kalinic (min.17) and the visitor Smits (min.37), and a technical foul against the visitor Sumner (min.27) and the local coach Roger Grimau (min.32).
Incidents: matchday 21 of the Euroleague played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona before 6,655 spectators.
