The centenary of Barça ends in a nightmare

BarcelonaThree years without titles. The Barça basketball team closed the centenary year with a new disappointment against Valencia Basket (84-108). The Barça team could not compete against a project as well conceived as it was trained. Jean Montero, an MVP of only 22 years who left applauded, and Kam Taylor once again excelled in the tactical proposal of the Catalan Pedro Martínez, who managed to add Omari Moore to the party. The orange team won its second Liga Endesa trophy. The sensation of local powerlessness was very painful. Surrender was the only dignified way out possible.The night, which did not count on the presence of Joan Laporta, who is already thinking about redesigning the section, saw some very emotional farewells. That of Xavi Pascual, who leaves the project; that of Jan Vesely, who retires; that of Nico Laprovittola, without a renewal offer, that of Carles Cascante, who is changing roles, and that of Xavier Saisó, the legendary journalist from Ràdio Barcelona, who is retiring."Valencia Basket was much better than us. We wanted to finish in a better way, but it wasn't possible. We played at the limit of our possibilities, but it wasn't enough. We didn't lack work and sacrifice," analyzed Xavi Pascual. The coach left Juan Núñez and Miles Norris out of the squad. Barça ended up as exhausted as they were annoyed with the refereeing of Antonio Conde, Martín Caballero, and Alfonso Olivares."

The Palau Blaugrana was full of Valencia Basket fans. Dozens of supporters who traveled to Barcelona by other means joined the four buses organized by the orange club. The scene was reminiscent of what happened at the Camp Nou with Eintracht Frankfurt.Barça used three consecutive triples to avoid repeating the same mistake from the other three games of the final. Pascual quickly used the mixed defense on Montero, but Valencia Basket found alternative formulas to keep scoring points (17-22). The Barça team took advantage of Kevin Punter's 12 points to avoid falling behind in a first quarter with many revolutions (23-26).

Pascual lowered the pace of the game at the start of the second quarter, when Laprovittola took possession of the ball. Valencia Basket found in Álvaro Cárdenas and Kam Taylor the energy they needed to regain their personality and, incidentally, open a thirteen-point gap on the scoreboard (30-43). The Catalan team could only score 12 points in 10 minutes. The locals missed 12 of the 15 field goals they attempted (35-47).Valencia Basket put the pedal to the metal again after the break, when an 18-point lead was built (44-62). For the first time in the game, Montero had a key impact on the play of a visiting team eager to close out the final. The Dominican scored four three-pointers in a flash. The home team's reaction, however, was reminiscent of Monday's. Punter's three-pointers made the fans believe in a comeback (63-71). The visiting team showed character to reach the final ten minutes with the advantage (64-82).

The visiting team's lead continued to grow, reaching 21 points with seven minutes left (67-88). Barça once again showed courage to squeeze out their last comeback options, but Valencia Basket proved to be a much more mature team than a few months ago. The Palau Blaugrana took advantage of the final minutes to applaud players like Laprovittola, Vesely, and Shengelia.