By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona has won the Catalan League after beating BAXI Manresa by a tight 81-79. Roger Grimau’s victorious debut at the head of the team after a match in which his players once again showed that they are capable of the best and the worst.
Barca confirmed what was seen in the semifinal: there will not be as much control on offense. Grimau has removed the team’s brace but we will have to see if that is good, since the generation was conspicuous by his absence and many culés attacks were limited to endless hand-to-hand that were not very productive. If you also add 2/13 in triples at halftime, the situation cannot be very good. Where the Blaugranas were good was in the defensive rebound, to the point that Pedro Martínez even had to reproach his players for not going for the ball with more impetus after making a mistake. But luckily for BAXI Manresa, they did little of the latter in the first half. Some spectacular Brandon Taylor and Brancou Badio with 12 points each led the Bages team to make it a surprising 34-47 at halftime.
But like against Bàsquet Girona, everything changed after the break. The passage through the locker room was a fable for Barca and what was previously doubts and uncertainty became overwhelming dominance. Spaces appeared in attack and defensive balance came into play. The very tough 32-11 of the third quarter transformed the score into 66-58 with which Barça took control of the game despite the improved performance of the newcomers. Willy Hernangómez was denied, with more complaints to the referees than baskets. Jabari Parker didn’t do very well either, totally lost in defense. Darío Brizuela had some good moments but he was not good in the triple.
Few thought about Barris Nord who would have started after the third quarter, but Pedro Martínez’s team did not give up. With the same protagonists as in the first half, 17 points for Taylor, 25 for Badio, the Manresans tied the game at 79, but Laprovitola and Vesely got the job done to give Barca the first title of the season.