Barça continues to win, disguised as a fakir so as not to get burned by the burning stones that the Euroleague had prepared for them in the first three days. Defeated Efes in the Palau, conquering Piraeus in a big way, this Tuesday the Grimau team scored another victory of those who sound fantastically good by winning in the always hot Stark Arena in Belgrade against a Partizan that promises a lot of war this season.
There was no trace of fatigue in the Barça players, who in less than a week have crossed Europe twice, flying from Athens to the Canary Islands and back to Belgrade. But they have done it from victory to victory and that always helps to pack a suitcase and keep the legs light.
The one in Belgrade is the eighth consecutive victory that Barça has signed, especially a European champion like Partizan, who adds the presence of the legend Obradovic on the bench to their great squad. They were all positive readings for the Blaugrana, who continue to erase the bad memory that the Stark Arena offers them, where two years ago they lost to Real Madrid in the final four, and at the same time they minimized Kevin Punter, who had given his ok this summer to the rectors of the Palau and ended up denying the major and continuing in Belgrade.
Barça completed a magnificent match, assuming command from the beginning and avoiding the Serbian attacks, especially in the third quarter. A task in which Nicolás Laprovittola especially collaborated with his six triples.
The Blaugrana reached their first comfortable leads in the first quarter (10-19) with a very inspired Da Silva who always responded to Koprivica. A poor start to the second quarter allowed Partizan to briefly take the lead on the scoreboard, but Grimau's men warmed up and with five triples in the last four minutes they took the lead (34-44 at halftime).
Partizan threatened to react by coming out of the locker room with a Dozier who had been missing in action and who took charge of the operations to score five points in a row that heated up the Stark Arena. But his fourth personal foul was a disaster and, although Nunnally took over, Barça were rocky and very firm, especially in the mental aspect, without breaking down at any time despite the fact that Partizan did not let them separate in the excess marker.
Two free throws by Jokubaitis in the last quarter set the high of the afternoon (60-71, minute 31) and the game then became a tug of war. Partizan scored and Barça always returned the coin, with special mention to Jabari Parker's help on the rebound (11), playing his best minutes as a Barça player. And, after more than two hours of play – someone should do something about this before people flee the pavilions – Barça finally achieved its third victory in this Euroleague.
83. Partizan Belgrade (16 18 26 23): Dozier (13), Punter (11), Nunnally (14), LeDay (12), Koprivica (8) -equipo inicial-, Kaminsky (5), Avramovic (11), Smailagic (9), Trifunovic (-), Andjusic (-) and Jaramaz (-).
92. Barça (23 21 25 23): Satoransky (4), Laprovittola (20), Kalinic (7), Da Silva (13), Vesely (12) -starting team-, Hernangómez (15), Jokubaitis (5), Abrines (5), Parker (9), Brizuela (2), Nnaji (-) and Parra (-).
Referees: Fernando Rocha (POR), Piotr Pastusiak (POL) and Arturas Sukys (LIT). They pointed out unsportsmanlike fouls to locals Koprivica (min.5) and Kaminsky (min.10), and eliminated the visitor Hernangómez (min.38) for five fouls.
Incidents: match of the third day of the Euroleague played at the Stark Arena in Belgrade.
