When they had everything done, Barça short-circuited in a bad way, basketball in rags, capital guirigay, resounding slap and blushing at the push of Partizan (and its effervescent fans), which lost 20 points to get within one with one goal left. minute and a half. It was also the moment in which past ghosts – with Jasikevicius and Grimau – were knocking at the door, as if the team was incapable of governing the duels from start to finish, that it lacked punch to finish off the stakes. But when everyone’s wrists were shaking (apart from a Punter who doesn’t understand pressure), Abrines hit a triple that was as vitamin-filled as it was redeeming, a basket that deactivated the rival and freed his teammates to close the victory and the lead in the Euroleague . A morrocotudo scare, in any case, that could not withstand Barça, capable of distilling a two-diamond basketball for many moments. [en referencia al añejo código de contenidos en televisión, subido de tono con esta marca]which finally shows that this team, the greater the challenge, the better the response.
Before starting the duel, Punter received an effusive tribute from the rival fans and a commemorative club shirt from president Ostoja Mijailovic, since the American left his mark during the past three seasons at the Belgrade Arena. Then the anthem played and several a cappella fragments were sung that gave goosebumps, a sanctuary where religion is basketball. The trumpets of the battle that was to come sounded. One that Barça made a fool of at the beginning and that was repeated beautifully at the end.
It turns out that Barça soon paled before the rival’s energy and strategy: while in defense they gave themselves boldly over Zipi and Zape (Punter and Parker) to give space to Satoransky, who missed his shots by definition, in attack he found the corridors to the rim – no one better than the dancer Carlik Jones – and the ramps from the periphery with Bonga in front. An expressive 21-11 that, however, was not indigestible to the Blaugrana, who put Fall’s centimeters to govern in the hoops while the mountebank Punter came into action, makeup to close the act (25-19).
Vesely, definitely one, two or three steps ahead of Willy Hernángomez—again in absolute ostracism from the bench, a situation that already smacks of decomposition—took his turn to set the score, even though it was difficult for him to catch the rebounds, second chances that Partizan turned into gold, now with Pokusevski with the green arrow up. But in front of him he already had another Barça, more dynamic and electric – credit in part to an Anderson who always plays as if he had the Saint Vitus dancecapable of making quick transitions and happy with rotations because Juan Núñez and Metu are a potosí, one to distribute candy and the other to absorb rivals and understand spaces. In addition, Parker appeared, with a hot wrist with three consecutive triples. A concoction that was too much for Partizan, groggy before the Barça avalanche (35-49). And the script did not change after the intermission, Barça catapulted by a Punter who had not yet said his, seasoned by Parker’s points, who added incessantly. A review that chloroformed the entire Partizan. But it was a mirage.
The hard-working fans did not cower or remain silent and, of course, neither did Obradovic, whose skin tone rose in time with the anger that he could not digest. Shouts, those of the coach and those of the fans, which woke up the Serbian team, again with Pokusevski and Jones in command, who scored baskets as they demanded noise (even more) from the pavilion, already with 58-70 before reaching the epilogue. It happened then that the hoop became smaller for Barcelona, hasty shots and inexplicable losses of the ball, absence of rebounds and a mistake that is difficult to explain. Something that Bosnjakovic, a Madrid youth player who made his debut in the elite duel, took advantage of to close the score, to the point that, after two consecutive triples – Pokusekvsi and Ntilikina – the difference remained at a slender point. Then Abrines arrived to relieve Barça and Punter finished off to the dismay of Partizan. Because Barça, yes, has an answer to the biggest challenges.
