fateful night Terrifying night. Night, for many moments, intolerable. The best thing Barça can do is forget and erase its poor performance against Baskonia as soon as possible and focus on recovering the good tone it has been showing lately. Unrecognizable, Grimau’s team gave up its second defeat of the season in the Euroleague in Vitoria by crushing against an opponent so fired up and in tune that it was even scary. In a week with a double day in Europe, Valencia’s visit to the Palau this Friday gives the Blaugrana a good opportunity to turn the page but what happened deserves deep reflection.
In a terrifying set-up, Barça’s gas lasted less than four minutes, as long as Da Silva’s fountain took to dry up. His 10 points in that initial stretch supported the Blaugrana, the German was imposing, but he had little desire to battle on a court that was always as complex for his team as the Buesa Arena. Baskonia’s points began to fall like water in Iguazú, unstoppable, and did not stop until the final horn.
If in the first play of the game Markus Howard seemed to twist his ankle, fueling the alarms of a Baskonia already very depleted by casualties, the New Jersey star did his best with another museum performance (26 points). With a triple he sealed an 11-0 run at 21-12 (minute 7) that completely blew up the game. Ivanovic’s team, which counts its matches in the Euroleague as victories on its return to Vitoria (3), assumed command and not only did it not let go, but with an iron hand and a hot wrist it mercilessly whipped an unknown Barça .
Barça fought against the opposing goal, barely 29 points at half-time, sometimes shooting without rhyme or reason and other times without any success. Hernangómez tried to fight under the hoops, his desire could not be blamed, but he was too much alone with a Jabari Parker in his dazed version and a Laprovittola still very far from his best form, missing unprecedented baskets, only in tune in the third quarter.
Quite the opposite happened in Baskonia, which seemed to have been touched by a magic wand. Everyone contributed in the outside shot, up to seven Ivanovic soldiers scored a triple before the break, with special mention to Miller-McIntyre and, of course, Howard, the executing arms of the locals.
The second quarter was a nightmare for Barça, whose scoreboard weighed more on each play. The distances were widening until they were bordering on ridiculous limits, like the 55-29 score at halftime after two free throws by Miller-McIntyre. Conceding almost 60 points and not scoring even 30 in the first half was unacceptable for Barça, in its worst version of the season. Grimau even forced a technique perhaps to try to simulate a slap on his players and wake them up.
The only version of Barça’s receipt came in the third quarter, where Laprovittola hit the rim until exhaustion (12 points) and the Blaugrana were able to cut it to 60-44 (minute 28) after scoring almost the same points in those minutes than in the entire first half. But the nightmare returned in the last act, with the inspired Moneke scoring to a score of 91-61 (minute 37) that caused others to be embarrassed. The nightmare had been complete. It’s time to digest and forget. And fast. The Euroleague does not allow anything else.