Barça seeks to relax against Real Madrid
The final ‘Playoff’ for the Endesa League title opens at the Palau with the spotlight on Mirotic and his future
MADRID, 15 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça and Real Madrid open this Friday at the Palau Blaugrana (9:00 p.m. / #Vamos) the final fight for the 2022-2023 Endesa League title, a ‘Playoff’ for the best of five games that begins with the turbulence generated in the Catalan team before the possible departure at the end of the season of Nikola Mirotic.
The Barça club had to come out of the way this Thursday to deny that it is going to terminate the contract with the Spanish-Montenegrin power forward, whom various reports point to Italy as a destination to play for Ettore Messina’s Armani Milano once this season ends .
Everything has jumped in the run-up to the start of an Endesa League final that once again brings together the two ‘transatlantic’ national basketball, who are facing each other for the throne for the eighth time in the last twelve seasons, third in a row, in a series to the best of five games that is even and with the ‘court factor’ for Sarunas Jasikevicius’ men.
Both Barça and Real Madrid arrive at this ‘Playoff’ after having left Unicaja and Joventut with solvency on the road, despite losing one of their first two games in their pavilions. Now, in just over a week, if the fifth match is reached, the new Endesa League champion will be announced.
The Madrid team has the responsibility of defending the title they achieved last year, in a similar situation since they did not have the ‘field factor’, but with a theoretical ‘lesser’ weight for having won the Euroleague.
For this reason, the obligation seems even greater for the Catalan team, in their last chance to win a title and not finish in ‘white’ after losing the Endesa Super Cup, falling in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey and losing in the semifinals of the ‘Final Four’ of the Euroleague.
Two of these setbacks were at the hands of Chus Mateo’s men, the last one quite painful at the Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas where he was the victim of another comeback from his rival in the second half, where he was only able to score 24 points, on a particularly special night. fateful for Mirotic (1/10, 0/7 in triple) and for Nicolás Laprovittola (4/15, 4/11 in triple).
Barça needs its two best offensive players to recover the version they have offered practically all season, especially the Spanish-Montenegrin player, on whom a lot of attention will fall, but also with the help of players like Tomas Satoransky and Alex Abrines.
In addition, Jasikevicius will have to find a way to stop the impact of Walter Tavares, who in the ‘F4’ finished with a PIR of 39 (20 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks), so Jan Vesely and Sertac Sanli will have extra work face to minimize their numbers.
In this sense, Real Madrid arrives better at this game than on May 19 in terms of rotation situation. Guerschon Yabusele, suspended on that occasion, can play and have an interesting duel with Mirotic, and Vincent Poirier is also now available, the other ‘5’ who will be able to give air to the Cape Verdean.
Barça knows that they will need the public to be focused on carrying their team, which has only lost one of their 20 home games in the Endesa League, against Unicaja in the ‘Playoff’, and give their best defensive version, not only against Tavares, but about Dzanan Musa, who in the postseason is at a good scoring level (16 points per game), Sergio Rodríguez, toned in the direction, and Yabusele.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
BARÇA: Satoransky, Laprovittola, Abrines, Mirotic and Vesely –possible starting five–; Sanli, Kalinic, Kuric, Jokubaitis, Nnaji, Da Silva, Paulí, Tobey and Martínez.
REAL MADRID: Williams-Goss, Causeur, Musa, Yabusele and Tavares — possible starting quintet — Sergio Rodriguez, Hezonja, Hanga, Llull, Rudy Fernandez, Poirier, Randolph, Ndiaye, Cornelie and Abalde.
–HALL: Palau Blaugrana.
–TIME: 9:00 p.m./#Vamos-Movistar Deportes.