Barça lives its cruellest night on the day it deserved it the least

BarcelonaCruel night at the Palau Blaugrana. Barça was not enough with an unbelievable comeback to overcome Valencia Basket (80-88). After recovering an 18-point deficit, the Catalan team ran out of energy to finish the job. The faith of the culé squad went unrewarded on the night they deserved it most. Without a good game from Kevin Punter and Will Clyburn, the locals were left on the ropes (1-2).

“Two defensive errors decided the game. We fought throughout the entire match and lacked scoring,” summarized Xavi Pascual. The coach, who opted for Nico Laprovittola from the starting five, left Juani Marcos and Miles Norris out of the squad. Toko Shengelia, who scored 25 points, summarized the blaugrana’s fight like no other player. Pedro Martínez, for his part, recovered Nate Reuvers.

The two teams started the match with the aim of raising their defensive level. The proposal had some consequences, such as low scoring or the accumulation of personal fouls on key Valencia Basket players. In a scenario of few points and poor percentages, Barça felt more comfortable (17-15).

The orange team took advantage of a 0-12 run to take the lead on the scoreboard (17-27). Barça went four minutes without scoring. The home team’s reaction was very quick and was built thanks to a couple of quick plays by Kevin Punter and Will Clyburn, but the Barça effort was not continuous and the Valencian team reached halftime with an advantage thanks to their dominance of the rebound (36-40).

Clinging to Toko Shengelia’s plays in the low post, Barça tried not to lose momentum at the start of a difficult third quarter. Jean Montero took the initiative in the game and his team benefited from it to open a 14-point gap (48-62). The local players struggled to keep up with the pace of an opponent eager to press in defense and run in attack. Annoyed with the refereeing criteria, the Palau Blaugrana crowd erupted. Unfazed by the noise, Montero continued his individual exhibition to extend the lead to 18 points (53-71). The Dominican scored fifteen points in just six epic minutes (57-71).

Barça drew on pride and a defense on Montero to restart the game with an unbelievable comeback (73-73). The Blaugrana team recovered 18 points in five minutes that no spectator at the Palau will ever forget. Darío Brizuela’s burst was key, but eight consecutive points from Valencia Basket dampened the Culer euphoria. The Taronja team didn’t falter and secured the win with a 7-15 run in which Kam Taylor read the home defense very well.

The fourth game of the final will be played at the Palau Blaugrana this Wednesday (8 p.m., Esport3 and DAZN).

Luxury poster for Catalonia

The Catalan team presented a squad of sixteen players for this Sunday’s match against Great Britain. “It is an illusion, a pride, and a responsibility. We will try to uphold the culture of Catalan basketball,” said Jaume Ponsarnau.