The only thing that served Baskonia to win was to continue in the fight for the Euroleague, and although Alba Berlin appeared at the Buesa Arena as bottom team, they were far from defeated beforehand. This time Kotsar, a court worker, appeared and made the difference for his team’s victory (93-87).
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It was a match in which Baskonia had a hard time against Alba Berlin, where nothing was at stake, to maintain their chances of being in the top eight and sneak into the playoffs. The Estonian player, with a PIR of 41, 23 points and ten rebounds, marked the distance, especially in the first half, supported by the reliability of Thompson, who was close to his numbers and also completed a brilliant game, in which the performance choir from other days was conspicuous by its absence.
After a promising start, in which the team from Vitoria ran a lot and scored abundantly, they let go until the end of the first quarter and beyond. The first ten minutes ended with an advantage (25-24), but it had already shown signs of weakness and in the second set, the game turned into a small disaster after a devastating 2-21 down during a worrying blackout in defense and in attack.
The Basque team recovered little by little, thanks to the inspiration of Marinkovic in the first moments, but it was difficult for them to find their way, because Alba found it easy to score three by three, with Blat, Lo and Olinde inspired, but it was Kotsar the one who made the difference to turn the game around, with Thompson becoming a colossus with his points (21) and his assists (11). Despite the fact that Alba fought until the end, Baskonia imposed its quality.
The Barca does not relax in Belgrade
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Meanwhile, in Belgrade, Barcelona, which has already done its homework and secured its qualification for the knockout phase, did not relax and beat a Partizan team that was on the rise in recent days (80-89), and still has a mattress to be among the best.
Between Laprovittola, fine in scoring and Mirotic, crucial as almost always in various facets, especially in rebounding, they managed to impose their game on a hot court, which squeezed the referees from start to finish. Jasikevicius overtook Obradovic and after an even first half, he gained the upper hand in the last twenty minutes to add another victory. With the contribution of Veselic and Satoransky, Barcelona’s game was like the Chinese drop, which tortured Partizan, which could do nothing to get closer to the Barca team, despite the deployment of Exum.
In the final minutes, Barca kept a steady hand and kept a sufficient safety distance to avoid unpleasant surprises.
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Source: EL PAIS
