By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Nikola Mirotic registered a new career-high 39 PIR after posting 31 points (a career-high-tying number) and 10 rebounds to lead Barcelona to a 93 – 80 win over archrival Real Madrid in the first EuroLeague Clasico of the season.
This result broke the tie at the top of the EuroLeague standings since now Barca sits alone in the first place with 12-2. Real is second at 11-3.
Real’s defense had no answers all night for Mirotic’s action. The Barca star forward finished with 4-4 2-pointers and 3-6 triples while hitting 14-15 free throws after forcing his opponents to foul him nine times. Brandon Davies dropped 16 points and Nicolas Laprovittola scored 16 as well against his former team while the Blaugrana controlled almost the whole game despite the absences of star guards Nick Calathes and Cory Higgins.
Fabien Causeur (11 points) and Thomas Heurtel (11 points, 4-12 shots vs. his ex club) led Real in scoring. Their team began the game up 4 – 11 but then Mirotic scored nine straight points and Rokas Jokubaitis closed the first period with four of his own to put Barca up 24 – 19. The hosts never looked back afterward.
Jokubaitis finished with 12 points plus four assists and had nine of his points in the first half to help Barcelona go up 51 – 42 at the break. Real fell behind by 14 and cut the deficit to single digits at the end of the third quarter thanks to baskets by Nigel Williams-Goss (10 points).
“I think that the positive that we can take from the game is that even though it wasn’t going our way, we continued to fight and it is a long season, so we have to fight no matter what, and just continue to improve,” Williams-Goss said. “I think we made just too many defensive mistakes, especially early on, to let them get comfortable. And obviously, we didn’t shoot free throws well. That was another big problem for us.”
Laprovittola and Kuric hit 3-pointers as Barca even took a 15-point lead, 79 – 64. Once again Real tried to come back but never managed to reduce the deficit below eight points, missing key free throws (11-21 overall) and good open looks.
“Congratulations to Barcelona, which played a really good game,” Real coach Pablo Laso said. “They knew how to handle the game better than us, maybe because of the lead they had since the second quarter. It was hard for us to get back. We had some situations, getting a turnover or not hitting a shot, and never found the rhythm to have better control of the game.”
Former NBA guard Dante Exum made his overseas debut and had two points (1-2 shots), two rebounds and an assist in 12:49 minutes for Barcelona while playing some solid defense, especially in the first period.
The noise of Palau
Palau Blaugrana was loud and Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said that he hopes to see a similar atmosphere in the rest of the many big games that his team will play at home this season.
“Congratulations to our players and fans,” Jasikevicius said. “Our players for showing the character, for finding solutions, for a great fight, like we understood, playing against a very good team. And it was not perfect, but we kept insisting, we kept insisting and we pulled it out. To the fans, for creating this atmosphere. We need more of this Palau on the big evenings, like we say, and it truly was. It was a great pleasure to play in this kind of atmosphere. We continue asking for more from the coach, from the players, from everybody on the staff, and we will continue asking more from the fans. Today was fantastic, and thank you for that. We are making too many childish mistakes, to be honest, and that is the only negative thing I can say today. We did really well: when Brandon (Davies) was hitting outside shots, it made things really hard for Madrid, but we gave away too much.”