Euroleague
- semifinal - matchday 1That's how it was
Barca
83 86
Finalized
real Madrid
Real Madrid will play in Belgrade its fifth final in the last nine editions of the Euroleague, the nineteenth in its history in search of the eleventh European Basketball Cup for Madrid.
Laso's team defeated Barcelona (83-86) in a semi-final with suspense, mystery and resurrection and earned the right to try to prolong a memorable sequence, which at this point registers 21 titles and 32 finals out of 43 possible in 11 seasons for the club legend with the coach from Vitoria on the bench.
Wait for Micic and Larkin's Efes (this Saturday at 7:00 p.m., DAZN).
Barça fell, a victim of confidence and fear, after being 13 up at the start of the second half.
Mirotic's outstanding record (26 points, 12 rebounds and a PIR of 39) was insufficient.
Madrid resurrected
Against Efes, Laso will have the chance to overtake Lolo Sainz as the second coach with the best track record in the section, only behind the 27 trophies collected by the legendary Pedro Ferrándiz.
Madrid, with Llull and Rudy as captains, emblems and survivors on this route, and with luxury supporters like Yabusele and Causeur, aspires to add another giant poster to the third golden age of its recent encyclopedia along with those of 2015, in the Palace, and 2018, in the same Belgrade.
At the Stark Arena came Madrid's tenth consecutive victory after three months of acute crisis and Jasikevicius's hegemonic sequence of 11 wins in the previous 14 classics was broken.
The two coaches appealed the day before to greed over tactics, to hunger over chess.
However, the strategy invaded the semi-final since Laso and Saras handed over the squad with their starting quintets.
The Madrid coach appeared without an inside reference against a more classic Barça, without Tavares or Poirier in the
lineup
.
With Yabusele acting as
five
and Hanga and Deck preparing a concrete that did not have time to set.
The first few minutes were worth several lives and Madrid's world came crashing down with Williams-Goss's injury 52 seconds into the match.
The American base went to the locker room, between ostensible gestures of pain and without being able to support his right foot, and the momentum of the white team was abruptly interrupted.
From 8-14 to 19-16 shortly before closing the first quarter, while the madridistas brooded over their misfortune in their weakest position (with Heurtel out and Alocén injured).
As the minutes passed, Jasikevicius and Laso continued to make moves with pairings calibrated to the millimeter.
Mirotic tempered Yabusele's effervescence with points and rebounds (10 points in the first seven minutes), and the game went on a Ferris wheel.
From the partial of 11-2 for Barça, to another of 1-9 for Madrid fastened by a triple by Rudy Fernández.
But in the battle to control the pace, Calathes and Laprovittola began to move Barça, with the energizing contribution of Jokubaitis, and Abalde and Llull to hold down a Madrid as applied as it was unstable.
Mirotic saw the rival's seams and, with five consecutive points, made another unstitch on the scoreboard in favor of the azulgrana, with seven points in a row to which Laprovittola added another five (45-34, m. 20).
Shrunken in attack and inconsistent at the rear, Madrid collected a handful of turnovers that sparked Barça's run and the Whites' doubts.
As soon as Deck added points to the piggy bank that Yabusele had opened, Laso's team began to run dry from the game and shivered in their body language.
Opposite, Mirotic and Laprovittola were a factory of optimism (25 points between them at halftime) after the 26-15 partial in the second quarter.
After the break, Barça continued to execute their plan while Madrid tried to rebuild theirs based on individual outbursts.
Abalde rowed from 47-34 (the maximum Barça income) to 47-41, but Jasikevicius' men continued to be more concrete, constant and effective in that section, with Mirotic always in the lead.
However, pride returned to rescue Madrid to return from beyond and sufficiency once again complicated life for the azulgrana towards the couch.
Another Madridista ode to the unlikely.
Clenching their teeth in defense until they sharpen their teeth in attack, the Whites transformed the 54-43 lead into a 56-60 lead in just four minutes of passion at the end of the third quarter.
A 2-17 run that opened and closed Causeur, with nine points in a flash backed up by a three-pointer from Yabusele and another from Llull.
A shock that unleashed the jindama in Barça, who received 52 points in the second half.
And while the azulgrana barely managed their fear, Madrid continued without looking back, with Llull flirting with the definitive resurrection (61-68, m. 33).
Mirotic tried to respond, but another three-pointer by Yabusele (the fourth in six attempts) consolidated the +7 as the Madridista's top lead (66-73).
Until Laprovittola also returned and, with two consecutive triples, lightened the Barça backpack of ghosts.
Davies missed two free throws after an offensive foul by Poirier, but Mirotic grabbed the rebound and took the derby into the territory of the brave (75-75 at 3m).
Causeur upped the ante with a triple and a steal from Laprovittola that he completed on the counterattack (75-80).
Everything in a sigh, with two minutes of
thriller
still ahead.
Calathes and Davies advanced over the wire (79-80), Poirier fixed a turnover with a block on Laprovittola, and, on the next trip to the rim, Deck rescued a crucial rebound that Llull finished off: 79-82 with 21 seconds left. final.
Barça did not find the exit.
Madrid had already escaped towards the final.
Jasikevicius: "We lacked professionalism and sacrifice"
The most high-sounding words after Madrid's victory in the European classic in Belgrade were pronounced by Jasikevicius.
The Barça coach insisted that the 52 points conceded by his team in the second were "unacceptable".
“You have to defend and sacrifice.
And we lacked being professionals and sacrificing ourselves.
It is a huge disappointment for us.
I think we're a better team but we're not going to play in the final, that's the reality”, stated the Barça coach.
“We had to have more sacrifice, not give anything away, and in the third quarter we gave everything away.
We have come out with five players without a foul problem and we haven't made them.
We have not been able to stop their counterattacks”, he stressed.
“This happens to us many times.
That's how this team is, a talented group... but being so close to playing another final, they give you 52 points in the second half.
This is not serious.
Last year we lost the final, it was a very hard defeat, this may be the hardest.
This has to hurt a lot," Jasikevicius concluded.
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