An unpredictable Euroleague season culminates Friday evening with the Final Four at the Zalgiriou Arena in Kaunas. After Olympiacos' big win over Monaco, Real Madrid and Barcelona are now battling for another ticket to the final, which will be held on Sunday.
This game is an exact reenactment of last year's Clasico encounter, when Real Madrid won 83-86 after a very close game on the way to the final, where they lost by a point to Anadolu Efes. This time, however, Barcelona has a number of advantages - a home atmosphere (thanks to Charas), more rest (thanks to a sweep over Zalgiris, as opposed to the Blancos' nerve-wracking 2-3 win against Partizan Belgrade), and also a fuller squad - Real without the injured Vincent Poirier and Gabi Dak, and of course also without the banned Gershon Yabusla. The two teams have already met five times this season, with Barcelona winning three times and Real Madrid winning twice.
A fascinating encounter. Tavares (Photo: Reuters)
Gameplay
Quarter 1:
Nigel Williams-Goss opened the second Final Four semifinal with his first points in the Clasico. Walter Tavares corrected a miss under the basket with two shots, Alex Abrinas responded with a three and Eli Andiaye increased the Blancos' advantage to 3-8. Tomasz Satoranski sniped from outside the arc, Avrinas added a shot of his own and the Catalans with 3 threes in the opening period reduced it to just a point. Nikola Kalinic hit another triple, Abrinas hit a third for him and Barcelona's fifth set up 14:15, 2 18/18 minutes into the quarter. Kalinic continued the Blaugrana's streak of threes yet to score in the paint, Tavares went up to double digits early and the teams were down 2-22at the end of the first quarter.
Quarter 25:
Anthony Randolph restored the advantage for the Blancos at the start of the second quarter, Rokas Jokubaitis scored the first basket from Barcelona's paint and without Tavares on the floor took advantage to restore the advantage to the Catalans. Kyle Coric sniped from three at 4:31 after three and a half minutes of incredible ability from beyond the arc. Mario Zugna cut back after another Blaugrana triple, cutting the margin to just 40 on a layup and dunk. Nico Laprovitola woke up with another three-pointer for Sharas, Satoransky and Jan Wesley with the first points to push the advantage to 42:36 to end the first half. A big three-pointer by Sergio Yui made it <>:<>at halftime.
They managed to bounce back towards half-time, despite a range from Barcelona's three. The Zunia (Photo: Reuters)
Quarter 3:
Zunia opened the second half with an important three, Abrinas scored the first points for Barcelona after 2 minutes and Provitola sniped from outside the arc en route to an 8-point advantage. Tavares cut in half with a basket and a foul and scored twice more to tie the game at 47:47 and Dejanan Musa converted a layup with a dunk to the end. Real's run continued until 5:21 of Yui's three-pointer at halftime when Williams-Goss sniped from three and the advantage went to the Blancos. Provitola still had time to shrink with another three, but Real went down55-58 heading into the final quarter.
Quarter 4:
Nikola Mirotic is still scoreless, but handed out an assist to Laprovitola, who hit a three-pointer to tie the score at the start of the fourth quarter. Sergio Rodríguez finally came into the game with 7 consecutive points and the advantage returned to the white side.
- sport
- basketball
- Euroleague and European basketball
Tags
- Real Madrid in basketball
- Barcelona Basketball
