In full possession, Barcelona swept Zalgiris Kaunas 91-69 at Palau Blaugrana in their EuroLeague quarter-final first leg to make it 1-0, with the two teams meeting again in Catalonia next Friday for a 2-0 lead. of the Spaniards or the equalization of the Lithuanians.
Sarunas Jasikevicius’ players reached double-digit first-quarter lead and +26 in the fourth quarter, en route to the eventual victory.
The pioneers for the Spaniards were Sanli with 17, Mirotic 15 and Jokubaitis with 12. For the former Lithuanian champions, Brazdeikis stood out with 14 and Giedraitis with 10 points.
The match
Mirotic dominated the opponent’s racket and made it 4-0 at the beginning of the match, with the Spanish forward also making it 9-2. With a 4-0 run, Barcelona reached 13-5 and completely controlled the match, now having offensive versatility. Two consecutive three-pointers made it 20-6 for the “Blaugrana” and Laproviola finished the first quarter at 25-13.
The many options in attack kept +10 to +12 at the start of the second half and with a 4-0 run Barcelona reached +16, continuing to find solutions from all their players and, with the good shooting percentages in the field, maintained +12 to +14. A 5-0 run by the Lithuanians reduced it to -9, but the “Blaugrana” answered in the same way and reached +14 and with the two consecutive three-pointers they finished the half at 48-31. Barcelona had 13/13 shots and 23 rebounds and Zalgiris 1/8 three-pointers and 16 rebounds.
The two consecutive 3-pointers made it +19 for Barcelona at the start of the third period, but the visitors’ Lithuanian forwards reduced it to -15. Abrines’ three-pointer brought +17, but Zalgiris responded with a 5-0 run for -12 with many solutions in the field and offensive polyphony, while the guests also took the rebounds. Barcelona with a 4-0 run reached +16 and, with partial scores of 3-6, the third quarter ended at 66-53.
The offensive polyphony at the start of the fourth period brought +19 for the Catalans and Kuric’s three-pointer brought +21 for the team of Sarunas Jasikevicius. Another 6-0 run by Barcelona made it 83-57, but Zalgiris’ 5-0 run cut it to -21. Yokoubaitis made it 88-62 and Tombey’s three-pointer made it 91-65. Zalgiris’ 4-0 run made the final 91-69 and a new date for the two teams on Friday at the same stadium.
Source: Sport Fm
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