A final surprise sinks Barça

BarcelonaBarça began their particular marathon of games with a home defeat against a tough-to-beat Zalgiris (81-88). The blaugrana team, which conceded 33 points in the last period, squandered a 10-point lead. All 12 home players had offensive involvement, but Justin Robinson was the most inspired against a much more tactically mature opponent (20 points).

"We reached the last quarter with a ten-point lead, but they played with more intelligence," opined Aleksander Sekulic. The Barça coach recovered Josh Nebo and Tosan Evbuomwan, but could not bring on Justin Minaya. The opponent, one of the teams with the best interior game in the competition, tried to exploit the lack of rhythm of the local pivots.

Well guided from the bench by Tomas Masiulis, a coach with a Barça past, Zalgiris opened the game by deactivating Barça's main virtues. The blue and garnet team had trouble running and securing good shooting percentages in the first few minutes of visiting dominance (18-23).

Olek Balcerowski's energy sparked Barça, which went on a 13-2 run to take the lead on the scoreboard (31-25). The home defense increased its intensity and Evbuomwan showed the first glimpses of his quality. Zalgiris was only able to score two points in five and a half minutes. The Catalan team, however, could not maintain a consistent performance, conceded the lead in rebounding, and reached halftime with a two-point advantage (41-39).

Jonas Valanciunas caused many problems for Barça's interior game, but the turnovers were a burden for Zalgiris's continuity. Barça's good work allowed them to build a ten-point lead (65-55).

The Lithuanian rival, much more mature and experienced than the blue and garnet team, found the tactical mechanisms to regain momentum, score many points in a few minutes, and turn the scoreboard around four minutes from the end (72-76). Zalgiris, who scored 33 points in 10 minutes, reached the final seconds with the upper hand. "We maintained concentration and played as a team," summarized Masiulis.