Very prone to drowning in noise, both externally and internally, Barça gave a lesson in trade and honor to knock down Real Madrid and take the lead in the premiere of the Endesa League final. Jasikevicius’ men were able to park the Mirotic earthquake and focus on the game, and they did it wonderfully. This was also understood by the Barça public, who turned to the Montenegrin in the presentation, confirming which side he is on in this contest, but who later forgot about wars and supported his people with majesty.
Perhaps somewhat stunned by everything that happened with their captain, Barça did not have a nice start to the end. A triple from Williams-Goss, forcing many blocks in that initial stretch, and a 2 1 from Tavares, again a Barca nightmare, sealed the first notice of the European champions. The Cape Verdean giant extended the wound until 4-12 (minute 4) without any rival seeming capable of stopping him.
But he reached Barça’s head to calm down, now without Mirotic, sitting on the bench after a few minutes that reminded him of the Kaunas nightmare – he would later be inspired by the moment of truth. Abrines was a hammer and even Da Silva, recovered by Jasikevicius for the cause in recent times, joined the party finishing an alley-oop to give the locals the first advantage (22-21). The Palau vibrated, which was not filled but encouraged as always and as never before.
Sanli signed up for the party with a fine-tuned wrist, capable of going to halftime with four triples on his resume. He liked his teammates, who were moving and handling the ball as much as his coach liked. They added assists and barely made losses. A scenario that allowed Barça to threaten to escape on the scoreboard. Only Tavares and Sergio Rodríguez, who is still in a trance, gave an answer on the Real Madrid side.
Vesely, infallible at medium distance, extended to 37-30 (minute 14) but the game had already entered a strange phase, with the refereeing trio at the focus of criticism from the stands and from Barça for their criteria. They did not point out the first foul of the second quarter to Madrid until 8 minutes. Instead, Satoransky’s third fell very quickly and the Barça team began to lose steam. Laprovittola missed clear shots and Mirotic tried without success. It was Llull, the usual one, who returned control to Real Madrid with a triple mark of the house, culminating a 2-10 run.
Barça had completed a good first half. They adorned him with good percentages and few losses, but he was not defending anything well and went behind on the scoreboard at half-time as a result of the potential of a huge rival, who always seems to find solutions to problems.
Far from the ups and downs of the first half, the third act began with maximum equality. Both benches tightened the nuts on their players so that they worked hard in defense and each basket had to be sweated endlessly, as it should be in any final. With a 16-10 score in those ten minutes, Barça regained control but with Madrid without leaving the rear-view mirror. The azulgranas accelerated in the last quarter, in which they both unleashed again in attack. Kalinic was drawing gallons. Da Silva played important minutes and responded. And between Laprovittola’s free throws and a three-pointer from Abrines the score grew to 74-64 with six minutes to go.
No one at the Palau considered a Madrid with inexhaustible lives for dead, who tried to react with Llull’s impossible three-pointers or Tavares’ dominance. A three pointer from Mirotic cut off the penultimate white reaction –the last one was signed by Chacho– and ignited the public, who began to chant his name as if the world was ending. Surely fleeting, happiness then was absolute. Mirotic’s Barça rules in the final.
97. Barça (28 19 16 34): Satoransky (11), Laprovittola (19), Abrines (10), Mirotic (14), Vesely (10) -initial team-, Da Silva (10), Paulí (0), Sanli (14), Kalinic (4), Kuric (3), Jokubaitis (2) and Nnaji (-).
88. Real Madrid (23 27 11 27): Williams-Goss (9), Musa (5), Hanga (0), Yabusele (11), Tavares (15) – starting team – Causeur (2), Rudy Fernandez ( 7), Hezonja (9), Sergio Rodriguez (16), Poirier (0) and Llull (14).
Referees: Daniel Hierrezuelo, Óscar Perea and Martín Caballero. They pointed out a technical foul to the local Kalinic (min.17) and to the visiting coach Chus Mateo (min.33).
Incidents: first match of the Endesa League final played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona in front of 6,819 spectators.
