Barça falls short of a feat in Milan and complicates their Euroleague campaign (87-84)

BarcelonaBarça came within a hair's breadth of pulling off a feat at the Armani Arena in Milan (87-84). Xavi Pascual's team was down by 25 points at the end of the third quarter, but rallied, coming within a hair's breadth of turning the game around thanks to a final 33-8 run. When all seemed lost, two consecutive three-pointers from Satoranski brought the Blaugrana within just two points, but with less than three seconds to play. Barça's epic final quarter, however, did nothing to mask the embarrassment of the first three, when Pascual's team was completely outplayed by the Italians. The third consecutive defeat in Europe sets off alarm bells for a team with injuries that struggled to defend effectively for much of the game, even though Pascual tried to impose his will under the basket with tall players like Shengelia, who scored 15 points, Clyburn, and Willy Hernangómez. The first quarter was quite evenly matched from the start, especially thanks to Vesely's contribution, but in the second quarter the Italians broke the game open from beyond the arc. Kevin Punter also used his three-pointers to cut the deficit to five points (33-28), but on offense, the Blaugrana team began to turn the ball over, going into halftime down by 12 points.

The worst was yet to come in the third quarter, in which Armani repeatedly punished Barça with his outside shooting. Barça tried to control the game under the basket with Youssoupha Fall on the court. It was a duel between two of the three best three-point shooting teams in the competition, but Barça's shooting touch was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, players like Zach Leday (16 points) and Bolmaro (13) were on fire. The Argentinian was dominating, and Pascual searched unsuccessfully for solutions. At the end of the third quarter, the score was already 78-51, with Barça looking completely out of the game. But taking advantage of Armani's complacency, who already felt like he had won, Barça showed their pride by chipping away at the deficit to within two points (86-84) with two seconds remaining. There was no time left to avoid a third consecutive defeat, which is beginning to jeopardize their qualification hopes. play-offs

"The third quarter is unacceptable"

"We played three games: one in the first quarter, where we played more or less well and missed a lot of open shots, while Armani made 4 of 4 three-pointers; in the second and third quarters there was only one team, and in the last quarter we reacted," said Pascual, angry because they had also lost. basketball - average. "We've had opportunities to match the 'basketball-average' But we lost this opportunity on the last foul. We said not to foul... and we did. I need to analyze the last play. In any case, Milan was better and deserved to win, but the defense in the third quarter was unacceptable," he added.