82-87: A Huge Mirotic Subdues Real Madrid

There is no better place to bury non-sporting controversies than the track. The club , noted in recent days for its mismanagement of the ‘case Heurtel ‘, claimed on Sunday with a brilliant victory in track arch – rivals Real Madrid , who after an intense duel and balanced has had to bend the knee to the good game of the azulgrana team. And against Nikola Mirotic , who has led the victory of Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team with a very complete performance to finish with an extraordinary 41 valuation . The Montenegrin-born player finished with 26 points and 10 rebounds against his old team and closed his exhibition with a block on Laprovittola21 seconds from the end that has ended with the last options of the white team, which in this way loses its first game in this Endesa League after opening the season with 14 consecutive victories.

The Mirotic festival , however, must not hide the great collective work of all of Barça, which despite the great balance that has presided over the game has always seemed a step above Real Madrid . This time those of Jasikevicius have not had bad moments and the regularity in their effort have managed to add decisive contributions from different players in different phases of the match. Cory Higgins , Kyle Kuric , Pierre Oriola or Adam Hanga have been decisive at some point and even Artem Pustovyi has signed actions of merit when the match was being decided.

The key moment came in the last quarter, when after a match in which no team had achieved advantages of more than five points, they achieved a 4-18 run that opened the doors to victory. Supported by an intense defense, those of Jasikevicius have taken the score from 68-66 to 72-84 with only four minutes remaining. The whites have shot with pride to get closer with an 8-0 run to get only four points (80-84) with a minute ahead but Mirotic’s stopper to Laprovittola 21 seconds from the end has finished sentencing the game.

Before that, the empty stands of the WiZink Center had seen a high-level duel, with Barça marking ground in the first quarter with an infallible Mirotic (14 points and a PIR of 19). The points of the great Barça benchmark, however, failed to shoot Barça because of Madrid’s triple success , whose eight triples in the first half (3/3 from Llull ) allowed him to reach the break with everything to decide (46-46 ).

The club tried to break again in the third quarter (46-51) but Tavares and Carroll took care to keep very alive to Madrid after the first 30 minutes (65-64). All in all, the feeling was that the Catalans were better positioned in the game and that if they achieved a few good minutes in defense they would have the victory within reach. That happened in the first minutes of the fourth quarter, with Kuric giving the definitive lead to Barça with two consecutive baskets (68-70) and the whole team gritting their teeth towards a victory as well deserved as it was valuable.

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