Laprovittola showed destructive power to take Barcelona to the Final Four of the Euroleague

Barcelona’s full-throttle exit after the break in the third quarter (29-15), driven by 13 points in a row from Argentine Nico Laprovittola (26 in total)initiated the fifth match of the quarterfinal series against Bayern Munich (81-72), which proved the Barça team’s passage to the final four of the Euroleague.

So, for the second consecutive season in two seasons of Sarunas Jasikevicius on the bench at the Palau Blaugrana, the Barcelona team has reached the final stage in the tiebreaker match, and this time they will face Real Madrid in the semifinals.

True to their brave spirit, Bayern Munich, who were able to equalize the series on two occasions, unleashed fear on the Catalan team in the first half dominated by their suffocating defense (31-37).

But Laprovittola’s scoring breakthrough, backed by Nikola Mirotic (20 points), restored confidence to a team that had recovered its best defensive version to seal the ticket for the Final Four in Belgrade.

in an entire stadium

Barcelona fans responded to the club’s call and took to the Palau Blaugrana with almost the entire house -7,444 spectators, a season record-, as well as pushing the team chants from a quarter of an hour before the kick-offs and, above all, in the decisive moments of the game.

The breath of the stands ignited Brandon Davies and Nico Laprovittola on the parquet, with seven points giving Barça the first lead (9-4, min.3), but Bayern responded immediately, doubling their defensive aggressiveness. , and rotated the scoreboard with five. points from Ognjen Jaramaz and six from Othello Hunter, unstoppable in the paint (9-15, min.6).

The Catalan team showed signs of offensive and mental blockade that caused them to lose the fourth game, with a series of errors in free shots and little preparation in the game, but they straightened out the course by triple by Rokas Jokubaitis and two tackles by Nikola Mirotic and Dante Exum (18-19, min.10).

Without finding offensive fluidity, the Catalan team remained afloat in the second quarter thanks to intermittent victories from the perimeter (5 of 13), with Mirotic the top scorer at halftime (9 points).

The Catalan team was ahead on the scoreboard (24-23, min. 13), but their inconsistency on the offensive -Nick Caathes and Nigel Hayes-Davis, 0 to 8 between them-, boosted by the referee’s approval ( 0 free throws by Barça, 5 for Bayern at halftime), were punished by the tireless German side (31-37, halftime).

A three-pointer from Caathes and four foreshortened points from Mirotic set Palau on fire (38-37, min.22). Jaramaz and Obst’s unlikely three-pointers at the buzzer thwarted Barça’s defensive effort, which this time did not give up.

From the hand of Lapro

Mirotic’s offensive irruption, with six points in the third quarter, was followed by a scoring burst by Laprovittola, author of 13 consecutive points, which led Barça to the top ten-point advantage (58-48, min. 38; 60-52, min.30).

Despite Hunter’s massive resistance (18 points), which added two triples to his intimidation under the boards (72-65, min. 37), Barça’s top swordsmen performed at their highest level in the final quarter. , which was able to send a Catalan team. 13 points (70-57, min.35) and resulted in an 81-72 win.

Data sheet

81- Barça (18+13+29+21): Caathes (10), Laprovittola (26), Hayes-Davis (-), Mirotic (20), Davies (8) -initial team-, Sanli (-), Exum (2), Sergi Martínez (-), Smits (2), Abrines (8), Kuric (-) and Jokubaitis (5).

72- Bayern Munich (19+18+15+20): Weiler-Babb (10), Dedovic (-), Lucic (6), Rubit (2) Radosevic (-) -initial team-, Hunter (18), Jaramaz (17), George (-), Sisko (8), Thomas (6), Obst (5), and Schilling (-).

Referees: Borys Ryzhyk (UCR), Olegs Latisevs (LET) and Mehdi Difallah (FRA). Without being removed.

Source: EFE