By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
For 18 minutes Galatasaray almost shocked Barcelona as Carlos Arroyo in 16,5 of them had 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists. That could be the story of the whole game, but Arroyo was injured in his left ankle, he never returned to the court and the favorite got the 88-61 win and the 1-0 start in the play offs.
Bostjan Nachbar was the top scorer of the game with 19 points, Joey Dorsey had 11 rebounds, 8 points and 2 blocks, but the man who gave the extra spark from the bench for the winners was Jacob Pullen (photo) who had 11 points in 13 minutes. Arroyo was the only double digits scorer for the guests who couldn’t keep up without him in the second half, after getting a 35-33 lead in the first 20 minutes.
Now the big question is the extend of Arroyo’s injury, as he is the natural leader of Galatasarau and there’s no other player in the team’s roster who can replace him. As coach Ergin Ataman admitted after the end of the game: “We lost Arroyo in the last minute of the first half and he is a very important player for our offense. We know that if you want to win in this court, you need good defense to prevent them from running. Without Arroyo, we lost control on offense. It will be difficult for him to play in Game 2, he will be examined in the following hours”. The winner, coach Xavi Pascual added: “Right now I don’t know if Arroyo will play or not in Game 2. We will prepare the game thinking that he will play”.