Barça 89-93 Baskonia: Not quite a perfect week
Despite a handsome fightback, Sunday's home game ends in a 10-point defeat
After two top European victories against Monaco and Red Star, Barça were unable to close out what would have been a perfect week as they lost at home to a more plugged-in Baskonia. Jabari Parker led the Barça scoring with 19 points, but could not save his team from the first defeat of the league season.
The side from Vitoria took the early lead at 11-15, but Metu came on to change things with nine points, including a spectacular slam-dunk to make it 26-21.
But the blaugrana scoring was seriously halted in the second period, taking a whole five minutes to get any points at all, and although things improved as half-time approached, they were still trailing by three (38-41).
In the third, things just got worse, and the Basques soon established a two-figure lead. Despite Parker's heroics, every time Barça looked like they had finally mounted a charge, the visitors found a response, meaning there were six points to make up in the final period (62-68).
The difference widened rather than narrow until a fab Jabari Parker three drew Barça back to within four. The Palau was absolutely buzzing by this stage, and the pressure looked to be getting to the opposition more. There were key errors to be exploited, but Kevin Punter missed the chance to pull level and instead Baskonia as good as sealed the win from behind the free throw line.
Barça are next in action on Friday at the Palau when they face ASVEL Villeurbane. That's at 8.30pm CEST.
MATCH STATSBARÇA, 89BASKONIA, 93 Barça: Anderson (12), Brizuela (7), Satoransky (3), Hernangómez (4), Parker (19), Punter (12), Sarr (2), Vesely (6), Metu (14), Núñez (8), Fall (2), Laprovittola (-).
Baskonia: Howard (9), Luwawu-Cabarrot (18), Jaramaz (4), Hall (12), Ndiaye (11), Savkov (-), Sedekerskis (-), Forrest (19), Rogkavopoulos (-), Diop (6), Moneke (14). Periods: 26-21, 12-20 // 24-27, 27-25 Referees: Emilio Pérez Pizarro, Javier Torres & Vicente Martínez.
