The calendar had drawn a decisive week for Barça in the Euroleague, with two complicated visits to two direct rivals in the standings and it couldn’t have been worse for the Blaugrana, defeated in Istanbul and Athens, who have gone from second to fourth to third. days of the end of the regular league.
The equality and level of the competition suggests that having a home field advantage in the playoffs – they are played in the best of five – will be a decisive factor and Grimau’s team has looked into the abyss in this sense with these two negative results. Because, in addition, of the three days left, two will be at home (Bayern and Villeurbanne) with the always complicated visit of Maccabi to the Palau in between.
Although the matches against Fenerbahçe and Panathinaikos had little to do with each other, a failure to appear in the first and languor in the second, a common thread was evident in both, two home refereeings with a scent of the 80s and 90s. “We have been second almost the entire season but they don’t respect us. The game changes when Ataman (Panathinaikos coach) is whistled for a technical. They start to inflate us, the refereeing criteria changes and instead of punishing them, they punish us. And it’s not just for today, it’s happening every week and something has to change,” Abrines exploded in the OAKA mixed zone. “They haven’t had any respect for Ricky Rubio, I’m not talking about an 18-year-old guy who comes up from Barça B. They haven’t even called him for a foul and they do at the slightest contact,” he added.
The captain spoke on his behalf but his feeling is shared by his teammates and the coaching staff. “I don’t know why this happens, I want to think that there is no campaign against Barça. But there is something, because we live this throughout the season and it’s fine, there are things that happen during the games and we are already fed up, they don’t let us compete. I think it is unfair,” Abrines denounced.
When making these harsh statements, Abrines had several actions in his head. Although on Wednesday, in Istanbul, Barça did not appear and undoubtedly deserved to lose, they had a run in the third quarter and gave Fenerbahçe a scare. At that moment, the referees put their signature, cutting off a first reaction with a foul on Laprovittola that did not exist and that also ended with a technique on Grimau, who couldn’t believe it. And when the Barça team got closer, located just 3 points behind the Jasikevicius, another unsportsmanlike controversy was pointed out against Kalinic that ended up collapsing Barça.
Although for the culé locker room what happened on Friday at the OAKA is even more serious since it was a more even match, dominated by Barça until half-time and by the greens in the second half. In the final stretch all the border decisions fell on the same side, that of the locals of an Ataman who, after suffering a technique, seemed to live more peacefully. An indignant Abrines was already seen on the parquet, so much so that his teammates were not surprised by his words at all. Among the plays highlighted, a scandalous foul by Lessort against Ricky, called as if in an attack on the El Masnou base, stands out, a two plus one denied to Jokubaitis after receiving an ax blow during his penetration or an out of bounds that the images revealed in favor of the azulgrana but that the referees gave to Panarthinaikos.
Beyond the arbitrations, Barça confirmed that they have a problem when they leave the Palau. Of the eleven defeats that Grimau’s team have accumulated this season in the Euroleague, nine have come away from home. A fact that gives even more significance to home field advantage in the playoffs.
