By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The final score was 91-68 in favor of Barcelona and pretty much explains everything about the game.
The Catalans got an easy task against Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz which pushed them to a 6-2 record and a four-way tie in the top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings with Bayern Munich, Fenerbahce BEKO, and Zalgiris Kaunas.
Jan Vesely with 17 points and Kevin Punter with 15 led a balanced team effort and the fact that Willy Hernangómez was the odd man out and wasn’t registered for the game ended up being a footnote.
“It was a great game; we were very focused on both sides of the court. A well-deserved win for the team. I try to play for the team; today I had open shots and I was making them,” Vesely said after the game.
On the other side, Trent Forrest scored 17, but the game was over early in the second half.
A walk in the park
Barcelona created a distance from the first quarter, starting the game with a 15-2 run. The hosts led by nine at the end of the quarter (26-17) and by 11 points (44-33) at halftime.
Baskonia made it momentarily a three-point game (32-29), but Barcelona answered with a 10-0 run (42-29).
The second half opened with a four-point play by Alex Abrines (48-33), which proved enough.
Baskonia couldn’t react. They trailed by 11 (62-51) at the end of the third, and Barcelona dominated until the end of the game, pushing the lead up to 26 points (91-65).
“We lost the game due to our turnovers; that killed us in the second half. We talked about this at halftime, but we still made stupid turnovers that gave them a bigger lead and made it hard for us to come back,” Baskonia’s head coach Pablo Laso said after the match.
Photo credit: FC Barcelona