Speed. Vertigo. Triples. Show, after all. The final of the Catalan League was decided this Monday after the triumphs of Baxi Manresa and Barça, two teams that, even being under construction, promise fun to the spectator.
Lleida’s Barris Nord already had a great time in its first afternoon of basketball, with the two semifinals, and no one expects anything different this Tuesday with the grand final on the line.
This final phase of the tournament began with Baxi Manresa’s exhibition against Joventut. Pedro Martínez continues to lead the Manresa ship, the years do not pass for the Barcelona maestro, who has made the Nou Congost his home and is capable of reinventing himself every year. At the moment, his team has already taught things in Lleida to make us think that he will achieve it again.
Manresa became the first finalist after a basketball exhibition with which they minimized a Joventut that has strengthened a lot and well this season, but that was absolutely dismasted. The speed and intensity in the ranks of Martínez’s team was his best weapon and he left a Penya without answers that proved to be still very far from a competitive version. Brancou Badio, Barça’s youth player, was the best player from Manresa with 16 points and 6 rebounds.
The second semi-final brought several more degrees of excitement between a Barça with many new pieces and a Roger Grimau who officially made his debut on the Barça bench, and a Girona that points out ways to make Fontajau vibrate as it achieved last year.
The Barcelona team seemed like a roller at the start of the game, in which they scored triples with ease and the first traces of the happy game that their new coach seeks were beginning to be seen. Jabari Parker’s first shot as a Barça player was a triple that stretched to 24-14 (minute 6). But, from that moment on, Girona took control of the duel and began to cut back, even leading 43-51 before halftime thanks to a basket by Juani Marcos, another Barça youth player. Brown’s injury did not affect the people of Girona.
Salva Camps’ team maintained very high shooting percentages, thanks to how well they moved the ball but also, without detracting from their good performance, due to Barça’s most deficient defense. Grimau’s players did not seem capable of turning on the competition chip and in many plays they showed little defensive intensity, allowing many easy baskets for Girona. All with the more than understandable alibi that almost half of the Barça team (the Spanish core) has been training with their teammates for just a few hours.
But the Barça locker room read the situation well at half-time and Grimau was able to reconnect with his players, who were once again a cyclone at the beginning of the second half and this time they did not go out. Vesely finished off a 15-2 start (61-53) that turned the game around. Girona persisted and did not stop believing but basketball was no longer enough for him and Barça’s triples hammered him incessantly until he had no choice but to fall to the canvas.
The final was served. A game in which he does not run, he will fly.
