By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a manner that became so easy near the end, that not even the most devoted fan of the team would dream of it, Barcelona made the 2-1 in the series against Lokomotiv Kuban by winning 82 – 70. It remains to be seen if Loko has the strength to make a complete comeback, or if Barcelona will check the ticket to the Final Four on Thursday.
Make no mistake, the final score does not exactly paint a complete picture of what transpired in the game, especially in the fourth quarter, when the hosts unleashed their full fury against their opponents, even gaining a lead of 23 points, three minutes before the final buzzer.
The main responsible for Barcelona’s comfortable victory was no other than Alex Abrines. Not only did he have a career night in Euroleague with 25 points (breaking his previous record which was 21), but he was the one to set the pace for his teammates,with a hydrogen fueled first half performance of 18 points!
Thanks to his efforts, the Catalan team went to the locker rooms with the score 42 – 36, since it had also shut down the engines of Malcolm Delaney and Anthony Randolph, which were working at full strength in the first quarter for Lokomotiv Kuban. That was the only period in which the Russian team looked to be truly competitive, always looking at their opponents’ backs for the majority of the game.
Coach Pascual’s players gained a larger control of the game in the third quarter and build a double digit-lead, but they were still not content with that. Barcelona went absolutely dominant in the final period, when with the score 68 – 57, they blasted their opponents, dropping 14 points and receiving only 2.
The “Game Over” sign, more or less, appeared since Lokomotiv Kuban could not come back from a deficit of 23 points in three minutes and just settled to reducing the difference in the boxscore.