By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Mirotic scored 11 out of his season-high-tying 28 points in the fourth quarter to lead Barcelona to comeback from down 17 against Bayern Munich and towards the 83 – 80 win.
“This team has many talented guys. Everybody can score in this team but the key for us, once again tonight, was our defense. In the fourth quarter, as soon as we were 10 points down, we started to play really aggressive. Offensively, we always score, it is not about offense. We just need to step up defensively,” Mirotic said to EuroLeague TV. His performance paced the Blaugrana to their 10th straight and 22nd victory over in the EuroLeague regular season.
Bayern entered the second half in a fiery manner to complete go up 48 – 64 with four minutes to play in the third period following a basket by Greg Monroe, Bayern’s top scorer (19 points, eight rebounds). Barca began chewing that deficit until Mirotic hit consecutive triples and Oriola fired a 3-pointer of his own for the 78 – 77 with a minute left.
Mirotic then hit a pair of free throws for the 80 – 77. With ten seconds to play, Barca fouled Maodo Lo who went 0/2 from the line. Vladimir Lucic gave a last fighting chance with a triple that made it 81 – 80 and then Cory Higgins was perfect for the stripe to make his points 16 and register the final score on the board.
Lucic finished with a game-high 19 PIR for Bayern after posting 12 points and five rebounds. Lo dropped 14 points as the German champions fell to 8 – 20.
For Barcelona, Kyle Kuric added 13 points, including a key triple during his team’s turnaround.
No defense, no party
Barcelona coach Svetislav Pesic emphasized the importance of putting on a solid defensive effort the entirety of a game and not just in specific stretches.
“The game was like all the games in EuroLeague,” Pesic said in the post-game presser. “Bayern played an excellent game and we didn’t find our rhythm, especially on defense. We talked after the first 20 minutes but, you know, the guys tried to come in the rhythm, especially on defense. Of course, if Mirotic didn’t make his shots, it would have been very difficult to win the game, but it is important to know how we came in this situation, to bring Mirotic for the shot. We understood that today, I am sorry, somebody talked about ‘Pesic too much defense, Pesic too much defense’ but I didn’t see the difference tonight. We only showed it in the last 10 minutes, or in the last 8 minutes. That is when we understood we could lose the game, and we started to play defense. This is the reason that, in the end, even when Bayern played an excellent game, I think that, in the end, we deserved this victory. Thanks to our fans, they supported us in a crucial moment of the game and this is the reason we won this game.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball