If it was his last game at the Palau Blaugrana, he couldn’t have imagined a better farewell. Nikola Mirotic not only pointed the way to victory with one exhibition, one more, leaving Barça one step away from winning the Endesa League. After defeating Real Madrid, the Montenegrin was acclaimed as rarely seen by a Barça fans dedicated to the track, with their backs to the box, who began to chant his name and name him “MVP”, preventing him from completing his television interview. If Barça is capable of winning a match at the WiZink they will be champion… and Mirotic will never set foot in the Palau dressed as a Barça player again.
It was a very intense classic that was experienced this Sunday, even more than the opening stake of the series. It was a gorgeous match. It was confirmed that Barça has definitively parked both the Kaunas debacle, there are no more ghosts against Real Madrid, and internal wars such as Mirotic’s. There has been a union within the Barça team that is making it possible to experience a fascinating final playoff against the European champions, whose hunger does not run out even after a few banquets. Although it also makes it even more difficult to understand how a team capable of competing like this forgets everything when it lands in a final four.
But the League rules now. Barça and Madrid went to rest without having been able to break the game even once. The maximum difference between both was five points. Neither was able to go further on a parquet where the tension was palpable. Tavares, for a change, began by crushing the Barca ring but committed the second foul before the first honk. What seemed like bad news for Chus Mateo became almost a blessing because Poirier’s irruption was one of those that marked those first bars.
The Frenchman was key to stopping Barça’s good start, which Mirotic, revered by the Blaugrana people, had embodied in the 14-9. But Madrid began to easily find Poirier, who scored under the basket too comfortably, drawing the constant ire of Jasikevicius. The French pivot was joined by Mario Hezonja, who when he gets his act together becomes a player from another world. The indecipherable Croatian star began to score triples like someone who drinks a glass of water, including one touching the central circle that he stretched to 27-32 (minute 15).
Far from showing pressure or nerves, Barça proved to be very involved in the series and reacted masterfully with a 6-0 victory that returned control to the scoreboard. As was the case on Friday, Jasikevicius’s men moved the ball a lot and well, with enough patience to find free shots. A good performance that Vesely culminated on the horn with his second triple of the season to make it 45-41 with which the eternal first twenty minutes concluded.
The Czech center himself, who against many odds is ending the season like a shot, came out of the locker room just as sharp, as Mirotic, who finally found a prize in the triple. Although it was Jokubaitis, also from outside the goal, who sealed a dream start to the fourth for Barça, going up 57-48. But the return of Tavares and the Juan Palomo of Sergio Rodríguez restored equality to the duel.
Barça started the last set having made just three turnovers. But during a good part of that last scene he seemed to play in a tight grip and accumulated 7 at once, a figure that reflects the nerves that the Catalans seemed to show. A free kick from Tavares stretched it to 72-78 at 2m40s. But perhaps frightened by the heat of the Palau, the ghosts of the recent past did not dare to appear on the track and Barça was able to recover its serenity. A triple from Mirotic and a layup from Laprovittola drew a heart-stopping ending. Llull was determined to equalize the series (12 points in the last quarter) but the blaugrana remained on their feet and emerged victorious from the free throw duel. Llull was human in the last shot and the victory stayed in Barcelona. Mirotic’s Barça has match ball.
86 – Barça (20 25 23 18): Satoransky (4), Laprovittola (10), Abrines (2), Mirotic (25), Vesely (18) -initial team-, Da Silva (2), Sanli (5), Kalinic (10), Kuric (0), Jokubaitis (10) and Nnaji (0).
85 – Real Madrid (19 22 24 20): Williams-Goss (5), Hanga (2), Musa (2), Yabusele (9), Tavares (13) – starting team – Causeur (3), Rudy Fernandez ( 0), Hezonja (18), Sergio Rodriguez (7), Poirier (11) and Llull (15).
Referees: Antonio Conde, Emilio Pérez Pizarro and Fernando Calatrava. They called the visiting coach Chus Mateo (min.18) and the visiting bench (min.34) a technical foul. They eliminated local Abrines with five fouls (min.40).
Incidents: second game of the Endesa League final played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona in front of 7,406 spectators.
