Alba Berlin’s series of negatives continues. On Thursday evening, the German champions lost to FC Barcelona in front of 8,916 spectators in the MB Arena and thus conceded their eighth Euroleague defeat in a row. In the 86:88 (19:30, 27:15, 11:26, 29:17) against the favorite for the title, the Berliners showed a very good performance at times and came very close to being surprised at the end, but once again it wasn’t enough. The best throwers were Nikola Mirotic (19 points) and Nicolas Laprovittola (16) for the guests and Tamir Blatt (17) and Jaleen Smith (15) for Alba. Oscar da Silva, who moved from Berlin to Barcelona in the summer, came up with a point on his return. Alba now has a record of 3:8 in the Euroleague.
While Marcus Eriksson and Jonas Mattisseck were still injured at Alba and Tim Schneider was out with an infection at short notice, the Catalans were happy about the comeback of their big star Nikola Mirotic. The Euroleague’s highest-paid player had not played this season due to an Achilles tendon injury but started as if he had never been away. After Luke Sikma threw a three in his face, Mirotic countered with two goals from distance and had eight points after five minutes.
Barcelona clearly set the tone in the first quarter. In addition to Mirotic, defensive player Nicolas Laprovittola also made a strong showing, and overall the favorite made a much more mature impression. The depth of the Catalans’ squad is especially frightening and Mike Tobey’s early problems with fouls went unnoticed. Barcelona led by double digits early on and drew up to 13 points away.
It really didn’t look good for the ailing Berliners – and against one of the big Euroleague favorites that was no surprise. Alba’s coach Israel Gonzalez had previously identified the pace of the game as the key. “Barcelona are probably the most physical team in the Euroleague. They will try to make the game slow. We, on the other hand, love to get running. It will be a duel of game philosophies,” Gonzalez said.
In the second quarter, Alba finally managed to impose their own style on their opponents. The Berliners acted more physically, Johannes Thiemann in particular went ahead with a lot of effort in the zone, and so the hosts slowly fought back. When Tamir Blatt turned up the heat and sank one three after the other, the game was finally open again and Alba even took the lead after a crashing dunk from Christ Koumadje. That’s how it went at halftime.
Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius is not exactly known for his fault tolerance and it must have been correspondingly noisy in the dressing room. In any case, the break was good for his team. After the restart, the Catalans acted much more concentrated and turned the game around immediately.
Barcelona shifted up a gear particularly defensively and Alba found it extremely difficult. After six minutes in the third quarter, the Berliners had just managed to get a basket, the guests already had 18 points on their account. As a result, Alba recovered and fought her way up to a point, but it was no longer enough for the all-important liberation.
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Source: Tagesspiegel
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.
