Mirotic ties the ‘playoffs’ and part of the home court factor
Barça wins without brilliance but neither complications to an eliminated Panathinaikos
MADRID, 23 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça beat Panathinaikos (74-88) this Thursday on matchday 30 of the Euroleague held at Oaka Altion, where the Spanish team worked irregularly but enough to certify their presence in the ‘playoffs’, closer to tying the ‘Top 4’ that gives home court factor in those crosses.
Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team had a serious second quarter and also a strong return from the locker room with Mirotic (26 points). However, with Panathinaikos with nothing to lose, and with no chance of reaching eighth place, Barça easily got into disarray, although they did not suffer in the countdown to Kaunas.
Mirotic, who signed 15 points in the third quarter, left a great second half to continue his good run and certify the presence of his team in the crosses towards the ‘Final Four’ with four days until the end of the Regular Phase. The Spanish-Montenegrin seems to be getting into the culé search for a Euroleague 13 years later.
Panathinaikos started better but Barça reacted with a 10-21 lead in the second quarter. With an abysmal difference in rebounding (18-42), ‘Saras” team suffered with losses and a defense that did not finish settling down. Tobey, Abrines, Kalinic and Jokubaitis took the reins in the first half for Barca (36-43).
With Higgins warming up after his latest back problem, Barca were short on points which Mirotic put up after the restart. The Catalans also improved their marking over Papagiannis, Grigonis and Williams, and Mirotic put the match back on track with a 50-63 five minutes from the last quarter.
However, the Greek team got into the fight and dragged it out until the last minutes with the same protagonists. Barça found the triples at the end of Mirotic, Tobey and Higgins to meet the first European objective of the course, with a cushion to also caress the ‘Top 4’.
DATASHEET.
–RESULT: PANATHINAIKOS, 74 – BARÇA, 88. (36-43, at halftime).
–EQUIPMENT.
PANATHINAIKOS: Wolters (-), Thomas (11), Grigonis (13), Williams (9) y Papagiannis (19) –quinteto inicial–; P. Kalaitzakis (-), Bochoridis (5), Gudaitis (13), Agravanis (2), Mantzoukas (5), Lee (6).
BARÇA: Laprovittola (2), Satoransky (8), Abrines (8), Mirotic (26) and Sanli (-) –starting five–; Higgins (9), Da Silva (-), Vesely (7), Kalinic (6), Tobey (16), Jokubaitis (6).
— PARTIALS: 25-22, 11-21, 24-25, 14-20.
–REFEREES: Latisevs, Nedovic and Kardum. No deleted.
–PAVILLION: Oaka Altion.