By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Mirotic and Alex Abrines scored 18 points apiece and produced 10 out of Barcelona’s 16 3-pointers as their team routed Fenerbahce 88 – 67 at home. While the Blaugrana will enter the playoffs with the first seed for a second straight year, Fener is seeing its postseason chances getting slimmer.
“I think we really played our game,” Abrines said after his season-high performance. It was his fourth EuroLeague game this campaign following his return from knee surgery. “We were tougher than them for 40 minutes and also we played a really good offensive game. I feel amazing! I felt fresh. Obviously, after five months of recovery, my legs are fresh. Those guys have been playing a lot of minutes and now, it is my time to get more minutes, get to rest those guys and then at the end of the season, everybody will be better, physically.”
Abrines made all of his points from the 3-point line (6-7) and scored 12 by the mid of the second period to push Barca towards a 40 – 27 start. Fener cut the margin to single digits (42 – 34) at halftime but completely crumbled under their opponents’ offensive power after the break.
Barcelona entered the second half with a 16 – 2 run courtesy of 3-pointers by Abrines, Mirotic, Kyle Kuric and Nick Calathes. Marko Guduric (15 points) and Ismet Akpinar (11 points) tried to keep Fener‘s head above the water but a 7 – 0 run put Barca up 70 – 49 at the end of the third period. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ players didn’t look back and even extended the lead to 28 down the stretch.
Apart from the win and the 3-point performance, a main attraction for Barca was the presence of 18-year-old Michael Caicedo. The young guard had seven points through 17 minutes while delivering some pretty highlights.
Fener was missing Nando De Colo while Jan Vesely and Pierria Henry played their second game after coming back from injuries. “At this point of the season we are definitely in a recovery moment for some of our most important players,” Fener coach Sasha Djordjevic said. “This is the fourth time that some of our players entered the floor. And we lacked De Colo who got injured the night before. It’s not an excuse, Barcelona deserved to win. They had an unbelievable shooting night.”
Still not completely satisfied
Barcelona presented two faces in the game for every half and coach Sarunas Jasikevicius far preferred how his team performed after the break.
“Congratulations to our players and fans,” Jasikevicius said. “Maybe in general, I don’t thank the fans enough for this season. They have been coming out a lot, supporting us in the best of the ways. So, one more time, thanks to them. As far as the game goes, I think that Fenerbahce was the more physical, more determined team in the first half. What happened was that when you hit 9 three-point shots, everything looks a lot prettier, but I didn’t, in general, like my team. I liked the team a lot in the second half. We made a couple of things different, small details that they were taking advantage of with the pick-and-roll of [Marko] Guduric, especially. Then we were much more solid; we didn’t hit 9 threes, that is difficult, but we were much more solid, and it was nice.
“I liked the team’s mentality,” Saras added. “We talked yesterday and I think the kids took a step forwards after a little bit of a strange two-week period after the Copa del Rey. We improved day by day, game by game. It is what it is; we are playing a lot of games. I liked a lot that, after the break, we went out with clearer ideas, especially on defense. I don’t judge our defense on being scored a lot or not, but on the advantages they get, and I thought they found a lot of advantages in the first half. We were doing the opposite. We didn’t get that many advantages but had a good three-point shooting percentages, and some of them came against good defenses. In the second half, especially in the third quarter, we were very solid.”