Euroleague: Barcelona does not win even with Metu | Basketball | Sports

Although he gives more than he takes away, although he is a tremendous and differential player, Punter always wants to have the last word and it is not always the good one. and he committed the same sin in this one against Red Star, forced shots in the last quarter and a lost ball in the final possession that condemned Barça, beaten again at the Palau (74-78) and once again stunted in Europe, now who wins as much as he loses.

Fast circulation, pass to Metu and jump with a twist of the wrist. Triple, triple and basket from mid-distance as a welcome. Put it in the bucket. Metu the longed one. I’m back after two months in the pharmacy. A player who, like Neto – who also received a medical discharge – validates Peñarroya’s bet, more academic, slow and intense in defense. But with or without Metu, Barça, which lost seven balls in the first quarter (15-19), is an indecipherable team without grays, capable of the best and.

Roguely, Red Star put chloroform into the game, strong defense and long attack, leaden pace to blur the rival virtues. And when he seemed to get his way, from the periphery, reinvigorating triples for a Barça that went from cataclysm to hope, that closed the event on top (35-34) and, incidentally, reactivated Vesely, who surpassed 4,000 points in the Euroleague and entered the select group of Juan Carlos Navarro (4,152) and Spanoulis (4,455) –retired–, in addition to Nando de Colo (4,643), Llull (4,068) and Mike James (4,876).

But on the Barcelona merry-go-round there is always room for one more turn. So Kalinic, a former Barça player who left in a bad way because the club accused him of laziness, began to command the court, damaging baskets and boosting the Belgrade team, peppered by the sensational Nedovic. Nothing that would silence Metu, who, three times and a layup, tried to turn the sock around. But that was the work of Darío Brizuela, who scored two triples in a row – the second at the buzzer and from the middle of the court – and scratched an opponent immune to discouragement, train wrecks and hardships; 59-56 before the epilogue.

Filigree movements under the ring by Petrusev, baskets of fine stylist by Parker or, two plus one for Kalinic, alley-oop from Núñez with Anderson, layups from Dos Santos… A yours-mine, a tug-of-war with intrigue, a scenario for Barça to say that life with Metu is better and that they have a team for everything. But not even with those. Punter gambled and made a mistake, and Barça once again perished in Europe.

Baskonia did better, (94-81), a team that amazed by its ease of shooting – which took it to the top – but that has lost steam as the competition has progressed. Moneke (29 points) and Howard (28) were too much for the opponent. Too good.