Closer. But still far away. This Thursday Barça added its third defeat of the season, all of them against Real Madrid. He has ended the rest of his commitments with victory, a word that he has not yet written against his greatest rival. The best thing for Grimau’s team is that the sensations offered in WiZink have nothing to do with the two previous classics, only kneeling in the last seconds to concede their first defeat in the Euroleague of the season.
It was certainly a strange night of basketball but completely exciting, with unusual statistics that provided an exciting classic. The appointment had already started busy in the previous hours, with Laprovittola dropping out at the last minute first, and Yabusele later.
With the recent past erased, Grimau’s team saw no ghosts and had an impeccable staging. Vesely struck with that innate ease that someone, divine or human, endowed him with and the outside throw also began in tune. In fact, a triple by Abrines had extended the score to 8-17 against a Madrid that seemed lost without Tavares, its only weapon but who was soon burdened with fouls and withdrew from the battle. By then, Willy Hernangómez had already begun to leave his mark in the capital, indicated by his poor performance in the two previous classics, this time growing in the face of difficulties and his team’s main scorer at half-time.
At times, Barça gave the impression of being a consolidated team, a perfectly oiled machine, and they moved the ball gently until they found the moment to do damage. A run from Willy here, a layup from Brizuela there. Everything seemed to flow easily on the Barça side against a Madrid that lived off offensive rebounds (13 in the first half, 19 at the end) but could not be found. A basket by Hernangómez, whistled incessantly by the white fans – the past is the past – blew up all predictions, drawing 16-30 (minute 15) on the scoreboard. It was the last Barça basket until the third quarter because in the 5m57 seconds remaining in the quarter they were unable to take a single sip.
Madrid tightened the screws with the old guard on the hardwood and straightened the course in an outstanding way. Campazzo applied himself to this task, providing assistance to Deck like Santa Claus distributes gifts. The turtle scored his team’s last 9 points in a 12-0 run, including a triple at the buzzer, the Whites’ first outside success after 15 attempts (2/22 on the night). Everything was being very strange but the classic was still more alive than ever (28-30).
Although Kalinic put an end to almost 8 minutes without scoring for his team, the trend with which the first half had ended was accentuated in the second, with a Madrid much more plugged in thanks to a heavenly Deck against a Parker who found it difficult great quote. Already in the last quarter, Llull stretched to 55-41 and Real Madrid decided to give up on Barça. It was a mistake that almost cost him victory. With Jokubaitis playing on the rebound and Satoransky taking over, the Blaugrana were even able to equalize the forces (59-59) 48 seconds after the horn.
The exciting finale went to the whites due to details. Like an instant replay that corrected the referee and awarded the ball to Madrid or Satoransky’s missed chance to score three free throws to force overtime. Abrines’ triple at the buzzer closed a strange and exciting night of classic.
65 – Real Madrid (12 16 23 14): Campazzo (6), Deck (20), Musa (4), Abalde (0), Tavares (8) -starting five-, Hezonja (7), Sergio Rodríguez (4) , Poirier (14), Llull (2) and Rudy Fernández (0).
64 – Barça (19 11 11 23): Satoransky (10), Abrines (11), Kalinic (7), Da Silva (3), Vesely (12) -starting team-, Parker (0), Jokubaitis (6), Parra (0), Hernangómez (13), Brizuela (2) and Nnaji (0).
Arbitros: Ilija Belosevic (SRB), Milan Nedovic (SLO) and Luka Kardum (CRO). Eliminaron por cinco faltas a Satoransky (min.39)
Incidents: match of the fifth day of the Euroleague basketball match played at the WiZink Center. In the preview, a minute of silence was held in memory of Fernando Fernández-Tapias, member of the board of directors of Real Madrid, and Carlos Alfredo Guerini, former player of the soccer team.
