Euroleague
matchday 32That's how it was
barca
88 67
Finalized
Fenerbahce
Barça march gallant and vigorous towards the decisive moment of the season.
Two months before the Euroleague Final Four, which will be played between May 19 and 21 at the Stark Arena in Belgrade, the Barça team polished off their unquestionable continental leadership with a brilliant and resounding victory against Fenerbahçe (88 -67).
Jasikevicius' men signed an exhibition from the perimeter (16 of 27 in triples) led by Mirotic and Abrines (18 points each).
The Hispano-Montenegrin, the
mvp
so far this year at an average of 20.3 appraisal credits in 24 minutes on the track, he barely needed 16 this time to meet his records.
Abrines, who had just scored 20 points (with a 5 of 6 triple shot) in the 19 minutes he played against Gran Canaria in the ACB, endorsed his state of grace against the Turkish team with a 6 of 7 shot from three in less than 15 minutes.
Five weeks after his return to the Cup, after five months out due to a left knee injury, Abrines takes off and his team increases its flight.
The slack in the scoreboard allowed the dosing of the key pieces and the brilliance of youth squad player Michael Caicedo, 18, who opened his video library with several baskets of merit that finished off the Barça party.
Barça appeared imposing at the Palau to crown the leadership of the Euroleague and attacked Fenerbahçe with a 22-11 run in just six minutes.
Abrines first and Mirotic then refined from the perimeter and dismantled Djordjevic's plan with triples (5 of 7 in that stretch; 9 of 18 at halftime).
Henry, Polonara and Booker shook off the galbana in time to avoid an early drop and the yellows came within four points.
But Laprovittola was in charge of the next twist and, with seven points from the Argentine and the fourth three-pointer from Abrines, the Barça piggy bank was filled again in a jiffy (40-27).
The Turkish team could only make the rubber against the waves of an increasingly robust rival before the stretch of truth in the season.
MORE INFORMATION
Russian clubs are definitively excluded from the Euroleague
The exclusion of the Russian teams relieved the Barça team in the last week of February, in which they had scheduled the matches against CSKA and Zenit, in Moscow and Saint Petersburg respectively.
A key moment of the course.
Just after the cup victory in Granada and before facing a claustrophobic month of March, with 13 games in 29 days.
To date, Jasikevicius' men have only registered two defeats in this section, those suffered in Valencia (86-76) and Kaunas (91-84).
A solvency fundamentally based on the strength shown at the Palau, where Barça has not lost since January 11.
That day, Jasikevicius' team gave up their first and only loss at home in the Euroleague, against Delaney's Armani Milan and Sergio Rodríguez (73-75), just two days after the last puncture in the ACB,
A sequence that represents a crossroads with its main rival in the League and on the continental stage, Madrid, which has been stuck for two months, with 12 defeats in the last 22 games (including three devastating ones against Barça in the three competitions) .
A streak that has given the Blaugrana a free pass to consolidate their double leadership, already indisputable in the Euroleague standings (with a balance of 20-5).
After the victory against Fenerbahçe, Jasikevicius's men only have two games left to close their remarkable regular season: the trip to Piraeus next Friday to face Olympiacos, and Maccabi's visit to the Palau on April 7, a match at the that the Israeli team may be risking its place in the
quarterfinal
playoff .
Mirotic, Laprovittola and Kuric already contributed enough ammunition to the Barça cause, but the incorporation of Abrines has turned the Barça artillery into an overwhelming roller for the rivals.
Fenerbahçe confirmed it after the break, conceding another three consecutive three-pointers in a burst of one minute and 20 seconds, with bingos from Abrines, Mirotic and Kuric precisely (12 of 21 for Barça at that moment).
Djordjevic's men returned to stay shivering with less and less margin and morale to try the reaction (61-41, m. 25).
By then, Mirotic and Abrines, at 18 points per beard, had already streamlined the procedures to offer another demonstration of power in Europe.
The EuroLeague standings without the Russian teams
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