Xavi Pascual and Kevin Punter, heroes of a miracle that no one will ever believe
Barça secured a victory that will be remembered for years to come, with three periods of extra time.
BarcelonaXavi Pascual and Kevin Punter, who scored 43 points, orchestrated a miracle that no one will ever believe (134-124). A Barça team riddled with injuries overcame a 15-point deficit and defeated Kosner Baskonia after three epic overtimes. The Blaugrana achieved an epic feat with a scoring record that puts them in a tie for first place in the competition. The 59 points scored by Markus Howard and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot went unrewarded.
Pascual welcomed back Nico Laprovittola, but with a limited playing time. He also had to contend with the absence of Juan Núñez, Toko Shengelia, and Jan Vesely. Pascual tried to compensate for the Czech center's absence with the young Sayon Keita and a lot of creativity. The youngster contributed 9 points and 4 rebounds. The difficulties worsened when Will Clyburn was injured. Joan Laporta, who has been a frequent visitor to the Palau Blaugrana since replacing the Gavà-born coach with Peñarroya, was in attendance for a game that helped restore Barça's pride.
Miles Norris started the game, but his defensive errors proved costly. Baskonia knew where to focus their efforts to dominate a highly offensive first half (10-21). The team coached by Paolo Galbiati scored 26 points in a first 10 minutes that were worrying for Barça. The Basque team's efficiency, missing only 4 of their 14 shots, was lethal (17-26). "We started the game horribly on defense," Pascual admitted. The visitors' lead grew to 15 points at the start of the second quarter (22-37). Unable to find their range from three-point range, Barça struggled to avoid falling behind. Their offensive reliance on Kevin Punter and Will Clyburn was concerning for much of the game. Markus Howard, who made all five of his three-point attempts in the first half, was unstoppable. In addition, Tomás Satoransky committed his third personal foul. Laprovittola's entry helped change the mood of the Barcelona team, who stepped up their defense in the final minutes before halftime (47-53).
Barça repeated their weak defensive performance against a Baskonia side that easily scored points (51-64). Concern grew at the Palau Blaugrana when, after a fast break, Will Clyburn felt discomfort in his left hamstring and asked to be substituted. Despite these adverse circumstances, the Catalan team made a tremendous effort to close the gap (70-75).
Three overtimes
When the feat seemed impossible, Barça resorted to epic comebacks to turn the score around (87-85). A 0-7 run brought the home team back down to earth, but the Blaugrana team reacted again in an improbable fashion to reach the final seconds with a chance of victory, but Nico Laprovittola missed the decisive three-pointer and couldn't prevent overtime (97-97).
Overtime was very close, but Kevin Punter and Trent Forrest missed their teams' final possessions, and the game went to a second overtime (106-106). Exhausted, Barça managed to overcome a nine-point deficit with two and a half minutes remaining thanks to a spectacular performance by Punter, who forced a third overtime with a basket with one-tenth of a second left (122-122).
In the third overtime, Barça secured an improbable victory that will be recounted from generation to generation.