The Barça makes water in Milan
Jasikevicius’ men leave a bad image on the penultimate day, ruled out for first place
MADRID, 7 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça could not (84-76) this Friday with Emporio Armani Milan in the penultimate day of the Euroleague, in a bad game against an opponent with nothing at stake other than to give joy to their audience at the Mediolanum Forum, discarding the Catalans to be first.
Sarunas Jasikevicius’ men had a poor match in attack and did not have the aggressiveness on the field that their rival had. Thus, without forcing Mirotic, Sanli or Laprovittola either, the culé team is one win away from Olympiacos and Real Madrid, who will play next week to stay at the top.
Barça, waiting to find out their rival in the matches for the ‘Final Four’ in Kaunas, appeared in the first quarter but, from then on, Milan imposed their aggressiveness in superior defense and accuracy. Ettore Messina warned in the preview and his team brought out his quality, despite being out of the ‘playoff’ pools, to meet in their last home game.
The outside success of Laprovittola, Kuric and an Abrines who made his 500th game for Barça gave the visitors a controlled start, but the second quarter was a slab. However, Barça soon fell into a slump and in defense they did not have the intensity that Milan demanded when moving the ball judiciously.
Laprovittola’s aim was what kept Barça at half-time (39-36), but there was no change of course after passing through the changing rooms for Jasikevicius’ men. It seemed difficult, but the culé team worsened in the third quarter, with 12 points despite dominating the rebound, with very poor percentages.
The only good news for Barça was Kuric’s good performance, with a 4 out of 5 three-pointer, to recover his wrist for the decisive stretch of the season. Jasikevicius gave up fighting the game in the last quarter, dosing key pieces, while Milan found Napier, who left as top scorer (18).
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: EMPORIO ARMANI MILAN, 84 – BARÇA, 76. (39-36, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
EMPORIO ARMANI MILAN: Napier (18), Shields (5), Baron (12), Melli (11) and Voigtmann (5) –starting five–; Davies (8), Pangos (3), Hall (-), Datome (2), Ricci (10) and Hines (10).
BARÇA: Laprovittola (12), Satoransky (2), Kuric (17), Mirotic (11) and Sanli (-) –starting five–; Da Silva (2), Paulí (-), Vesely (9), Abrines (3), Higgins (6), Tobey (12) and Jokubaitis (2).
–PARTIALS: 18-21, 21-15, 19-12, 26-28.
–REFEREES: Belosevic, Boltauzer and Vilius. No deleted.
–PABELLÓN: Milan Forum.