Barça survives and attacks Piraeus
The Blaugranas are one victory away, in Greece or Barcelona, from the ‘Final Four’ in Berlin
BARCELONA, 30 Abr. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça beat Olympiacos this Tuesday (80-82) in the third match of the Euroleague ‘Playoffs’, at the Peace And Friendship Stadium, and takes the lead in the series (2-1) by overcoming the initial defeat and now recover the court factor in a duel that was decided in extra time in favor of some Blaugranas who knew how to row against the current.
The importance of winning in Piraeus was crucial; It was essential. And of the two options that the ‘culers’ had, they took advantage of the first. Now, with a life jacket to avoid shipwreck in what is considered the Athenian port, they will play to go to Berlin on the fast track thanks to an agonizing finale in a hot extra time; very hot.
Despite finding themselves behind several times in that extra time, with two key offensive rebounds from the giant Moustapha Fall, Barça did not collapse in a red-and-white inferno that they put out with good defense and three-pointers. One of them, that of an inspired Tomas Satoransky, made the score 80-80 with 36.6 seconds of playing time.
The local Williams-Goss missed a triple, in a shot forced by Satoransky’s good defense, and Barça had, after a foul by Georgios Bartzokas’s team, 3.8 seconds to find the winning shot. The ball was requested by Jabari Parker, who was slow to shoot and did so from home and at the buzzer. He missed but, in the shot, the referees after reviewing the action saw a foul by Filip Petrusev.
Lack of shot. He blew up the Peace and Friendship Pavilion, which had little or nothing of either. The technician touched the former Blaugrana coach Bartzokas, due to his protests. But, after the ‘official review’, the referees gave three free throws to Parker and with 0.5 seconds on the clock. He made the first two, the American missed the last one and Shaquielle McKissic’s final shot, in desperation, didn’t even come close to the rim.
Key victory for Barça. If the next duel comes out tails, there would always be a fifth and final duel at the Palau Blaugrana, with the Catalan team supported by its fans. Now it is Olympiacos who are on the ropes despite winning the initial duel in Barcelona and temporarily stealing the home court factor in their rival’s favor. Barça recovers the initiative, recovers the loot, and breathes.
It was not an easy game at all. Quite the opposite. There were many exchanges of superiority on the scoreboard in the final stretch, so close that the duel went to extra time. But, first, Olympiacos managed to win by 8 points, after a 2+1 action by Serbian Filip Petrusev, just on the edge of halftime, which was reached at 37-32.
But Barça came out very well after passing through the locker room and achieved a better partial of 0-9 between the end of the first half and the start of the second to take the lead again (37-38) thanks to a triple by Nico Laprovittola, one of the most outstanding in the ‘culer’ triumph along with Tomas Satoransky, the best by far for his attitude on the court, Jabari Parker, Jan Vesely (top scorer, with 16) and Willy Hernangómez.
There were nerves and tension, any team could have won the duel but, as they did in the Regular Phase, Barça avoided getting lost in the Greek storm and arrived safely in Piraeus. In the fourth match of the series they will try to let the pressure play tricks on an Olympiacos team that, however, will go all out, hurt and upset with this extra-time finale, ready to return the series to Barcelona.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: OLYMPIACOS, 80 – BARÇA, 82 (71-71 at the end of the 40 minutes and 37-32, at half-time).
–EQUIPMENT.
OLYMPIACOS: Canaan (-), Walkup (10), Sikma (-), Peters (8) and Fall (8) –quinteto inicial–; Williams-Goss (9), Wright (16), Larentzakis (3), Petrusev (18) and McKissic (8).
BARÇA: Rubio (-), Laprovittola (12), Kalinic (5), Parker (13) and Vesely (16) –starting quintet–; Da Silva (2), Brizuela (2), Satoransky (13), Hernangómez (13), Abrines (6) and Jokubaitis (-).
–PARTIALS: 13-13, 24-19, 14-25 and 20-14 (9-11, in extra time).
–REFEREES: Belosevic, Difallah and Nedovic. No eliminated.
–PABELLÓN: Peace And Friendship Stadium.