Incomplete party at the Palau, ended on the night of Ricky Rubio’s debut with a painful defeat against Monaco that tightened the battle for second place in the Euroleague. Barça was absurd in many sections of the second half, the Blaugrana unrecognizable in one of their worst performances of the season.
Although Roger Grimau had not wanted to anticipate the news, few doubted the presence of the El Masnou point guard against Monaco this Friday. More than an hour before the duel, Ricky jumped onto the hardwood to warm up. He did it almost alone, shooting some free throws. He exchanged impressions with a couple of former Monaco opponents and returned to the locker room. There were still a few minutes until the official minutes were closed and there were still those who questioned everything. There is everything in the vineyard of the Lord. At eight o’clock, the Palau scoreboard showed the image of the pineapple in the locker room hall and there was Ricky Rubio with his teammates. The Palau was preparing for the party, exploding with joy when his name sounded over the loudspeaker during the team presentation.
Unlike what happened with Spain, the former Clevelander began waiting his turn on the bench. Barça is a team with cruising speed and its emergence will be gradual, as is normal. So sitting on the sideline, with his friend Marc Gasol sitting in front of him in the front row, the owner of Bàsquet Girona did not want to miss the event. Ricky witnessed the brilliant start of the Blaugrana, a 7-0 that was signed by the always successful Vesely. A dunk by Abrines after a great run stretched the score to 20-11, the score with which the first quarter ended.
Just after the second set, Ricky took off his shirt and asked for a place on the court. He clashed with Jokubaitis and debuted again for Barça 4,644 days after his last appearance as a Barça player (14/11/2011). He seemed calm and relaxed, confirming that the two games played with Spain last week did him a great job in quelling his nerves. He attempted a couple of trademark assists without success and sat down again 4m44s later with a basket and a rebound to his credit.
Monaco, one of those compact and fierce teams, had risen up and had even commanded the scoreboard for a few moments with Strazel’s free throws (25-27, minute 7). But Barça managed to go into the break ahead in a duel in which the one who missed the most triples seemed to have a prize (3/14 for Barça and 1/11 for Monaco).
With 10 points almost in a row, Motiejunas began the second half, anticipating the nightmare that awaited Barça, completely blurred, and very hasty in attack. Kalinic’s 0/7 in triples epitomized a horrendous night in shooting for the locals that ended up condemning them to defeat.
Ricky also had his space, with minutes between the third and last act. There he contributed a two plus one and his intention to become the leader of the locker room by calling up his teammates in a circle in the midst of a disaster. In total he accumulated 11m14s on the court, adding 5 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. But the talk didn’t work and Monaco, to which he refined a little in the triple and Mike James raised his hand, easily escaped on the scoreboard, leading 57-70. The Grimau team had no arguments to add excitement to the night and victory escaped towards the Principality.
67. Barça (21 14 16 16): Satoransky (8), Laprovittola (13), Kalinic (2), Parker (7), Vesely (19) -starting team-, Jokubaitis (2), Hernangómez (3), Abrines (4), Brizuela (2), Da Silva (2) and Rubio (5).
77. Monaco (12 21 27 17): James (17), Strazel (13), Blossomgame (10), Brown (3), Motiejunas (12) -starting team-, Diallo (4), Okobo (7), Jaiteh (1), Hall (10), Walker (-) and Cornelie (-).
Referees: Sreten Radovic (CRO), Seffi Shemmesh (ISR) and Saso Petek (MAC). Without eliminated.
Incidents: matchday 27 of the Euroleague played at the Palau Blaugrana in Barcelona before 7,045 spectators.
