By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
FC Barcelona got the job done against visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and ends this double-game week’s action with a 96-73 victory and an 8-2 record to remain on top of the pack in the standings.
Nikola Mirotic played a key part in this victory, as he led the hosts with a double-double of 25 points and 14 rebounds and sets sights for the MVP of the round honors with a PIR of 35.
Maccabi had the upper hand of the game in the first half, leading by 46-43, though a scoring fest by the hosts in the third quarter placed them ahead with a 74-66 advantage.
Barcelona kept their visitors at bay midway through the final period (13-2 partial score) and managed to turn things easy until the end of the game. Notably, Maccabi ended the quarter with just 7 points scored.
“The change between two halves was just defense”, explained Barcelona coach Svetislav Pesic. “We understood after the first half that we should improve our defense against their point guards, and we did an excellent job. That was the key for me. If we play good defense against a point guard, you motivate everybody else to play on defense, to control the pick-and-roll, to rotate very good, to control the rebound. After that, basketball is very simple.”
“We are going in the right direction”
For Mirotic, this was one more game in which Barcelona excelled: “We played last game against Fenerbahce, now Maccabi, next one CSKA. Big teams. So we are very motivated. We are in a good moment and we just want to keep improving, because there is a lot of room for us to improve as a team. But we are going in the right direction, so we just need to keep working and enjoying this game.”
Maccabi ends this week with back-to-back defeats and falls to a 6-4 record in the competition’s standings.
“We will learn a lot”
“We will need to learn a lot from this game because we need to know how to stay focused for all 40 minutes – especially against teams like Barcelona. Today we had two different halves. In the first one, we were really focused, determined, and we stuck to the game plan offensively and defensively. We didn’t let Barcelona run fastbreaks, and the way we played in the first half that was how we planned it. The second half was completely different, we allowed them to score 31 points in the third quarter, and we weren’t tough on the defensive end.”, mentioned Maccabi coach Giannis Sfairopoulos at the end of the game.
Photo: EuroLeague