If you win in the Palau It was complicated until now, with the stands at full capacity the company is utopian. This is how he must have felt Saint Petersburg Zenith, absolutely surpassed this Friday by a Barça brilliant that counted, finally, with the support of 100% of the capacity of its pavilion to add the fifth triumph of the Euroleague (84-58) and stay as an undefeated leader.
In another MVP performance, Niko Mirotic signed 20 points and a 28 PIR to lead his team’s festival of play, which featured stellar appearances from multiple players. The defensive work of BarçaAbove all, he laid the foundations for his victory and completely disarmed an opponent who was far from being the one who played a tough playoff here a few months ago.
(+) See the summary of the match
The doubts and errors in the shooting of the first possessions made one think of an agony similar to that of the day of Olympiacos. The truth is that the Barça had a somewhat cold staging before a Zenith daring than with an initial triple of Kulagin and the first leads (4-9) seemed excited. With 9-14, Jasikevicius asked for time and the dynamics began to change, especially due to the greater defensive aggressiveness of the Catalans. It helped a lot, too, that Kuric hit his first shots, a threat that Mirotic compensated for, also successfully seeking actions close to the rim. All in all, at the end of the first quarter it was 20-19.
The images of Barça’s great victory over Zenit Saint Petersburg
In the second period There is he set the tone with baskets also on the post. The Barça defense annulled Zenit completely, which, together with two triples from Nico Laprovittola, resulted in an 18-2 run in just five minutes. Furthermore, the only two points of the Zenith in this room until then they had been free throws.
Xavi Paschal he was desperate on the wing before the plummeting of his team that was totally overtaken by a rival thrown towards victory to accumulate 19 rental points (42-23) shortly before reaching the break (44-27).
Whatever Xavi Paschal he told his men at halftime, it didn’t work. Two triples of Mirotic and stimulating defensive actions by Barça led to an 8-0 at the start of the third quarter that ended up making the coach desperate Gava and left the party very decanted for the Barcelona. A visiting time-out put some parenthesis to the climb that reached a 27-point difference (62-35) in the 26th minute. The third quarter closed with 66-41 and unbeatable feelings for Jasikevicius’s team.
With everything decided, the last quarter served for the second unit, especially Jokubaitis and Smits, join the party with actions of merit and Sanli regain his rhythm.
Data sheet
Barça, 84 – Zenit, 58
84 – Barça (20 + 24 + 22 + 18): Calathes (4), Higgins (4), Kuric (7), Mirotic (20), Sanli (11) -starting five-, Jokuvaitis (6), Davies (11 ), Hayes (6), Laprovittola (8), Smits (7), Oriola (-), Sergi Martínez (-).
58 – Zenit (19 + 8 + 14 + 17): Lloyd (8), Ponitka (8), Kulagin (8), Mickey (4), Gudaitis (6) -starting five- Frankamp (5), Baron (8) , Karasev (-), Poythress (6), Zubkov (2), Kuzminskas (-) and Volkhin (3).
Referees: Lamonica (ITA), Mogulkoc (TUR) and Majkic (SLO). Without eliminated.
Incidents: Meeting corresponding to the fifth day of the Euroleague played at the Palau Blaugrana before 4,481 spectators.
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