Malcolm Delaney before Johannes Thiemann, this Wednesday.
Barça had to sweat beautifully in Berlin. Alba got to the beard at many times of the game and sold tremendously expensive a defeat that allows the team Svetislav Pesic keep your pace steady in the Euroleague. On this occasion, the great Barça figure would be a Álex Abrines very concentrated in recoveries and lethal in triples. Nikola Mirotic, perhaps with less brilliance than usual, and Malcolm Delaney they would also be very important for Barcelona players against an opponent who undoubtedly found his best man in Luke Sikma.
Barça and Alba embarked on a whole roller coaster in the first part of their duel. The Catalans hit hard in the first quarter, despite signing a faltering start in the rebound. Nikola Mirotic, capable of scoring only from the free throw line in the first two periods and Malcolm Delaney were perhaps the brightest pieces of a set that closed the room with a favorable income of nine points (18-27) which, at a priori, it seemed enough to avoid trouble. The Berlin team, voluntarious but failed in attack, was disarmed by a team that found in a pass Brandon Davies to Delaney, from behind, as if both had exchanged roles, which was perhaps the most brilliant action of those first moments.
Alba, despite everything, would return the initial blow to Barça in the second quarter. And by far. It didn't help that between Tomic and Kuric will emulate the action starring Davies and Delaney in the first period. The Catalans showed their worst image, both in defensive and offensive tasks, against an opponent who climbed very soon to the beards of the hand of all Landry Nnoko Y Jonas Mattisek to put the equalizer on the scoreboard (30-30) in the initial moments. The worst, despite everything, was yet to come. In this case, with Luke Sikma at the handle and Martin Hermansson Y Tyler Cavanaugh punishing the rival defense to send the duel to the rest with a very hard part of 28-11. A score that allowed Aito's team to go to the locker room with an eight-point lead (46-38).
The return to the parquet after the break did not initially paint anything well for Barça, no matter how much Mirotic finally managed to score his first two points at stake and began to seriously enter the game again. The Alba of Berlin was able to leave on the scoreboard to put 11 points away with the Barcelona players thanks to the contributions of Eriksson, but saw how the visitors responded with a 2-14 partial, with Higgins as the main protagonist, to return to get ahead in the light (55-56). As much as the locals tried to overcome, a triple of Delaney, after the Baltimore failed two consecutive free throws and Kuric recovered the ball in extremis, allowed the Pesic to leave the last quarter with a shy four-point advantage (62-66).
The Alba of Berlin pulled back in a claw to prevent Barca from feeling comfortable on the track, with Sikma and Hermansson as its most prominent players. The Catalans, however, would find a Abrines terribly inspired by the moments when things got more tricky to finally seal a new victory in Europe. His triples, a type of action that would also be added with success Delaney, and his ability to steal the ball in the most appropriate moments would end up being key to the Pesic team. The Germans, with the work overall always on, would just finally knee in the last breath to see how their opponent took a very terrible and final victory by 80-84.
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