A great Barça wears Armani from the defense

The azulgrana team only conceded eight points to the Italians in a perfect second quarter from behind

Tobey, Satoransky and Higgins continue to make strides forward and the young Nnaji marveled in the fourth quarter

With a first quarter of touchdown, this Friday Barça has passed over EA7 Olimpia Milano (74-56) with a sensational defense that has shackled the continuous and desperate attempts of the Lombard squad, misdirected by former Barça player Kevin Pangos and in which only another former player, Brandon Davies, has stood out.

It was an important test to check if that ascending line that the team is showing from the beginning of the season it translated into a victory against one of the ‘greats’ of the Euroleague. In fact, Saras himself assured after losing to Olympiacos that that match came “a little early”.

From less to more, the second quarter of the azulgranas should be shown in all schools so that the little ones understand the correct philosophy of a good defense, with synchronized changes, ideal blocking passes, intensity and mastery of the rebound that gave meaning to everything (21-14 at halftime).

The first quarter was scoring. On his return to the Palau, Brandon Davies scored 10 of his team’s first 12 points without fail except for the ‘cap’ that he took from a James Nnaji who continues to improve. The Italians took the lead 8-12 and Barça led for the first time with a spectacular two plus one after Kalinic’s mate (14-12). Three times the locals broke the visiting hoop in the first quarter.

The best Tobey of the season contributed a lot in attack, although a triple by specialist Billy Baron (ex of Xavi Pascual’s Zenit) caused the duel to close in a draw in its first 10 minutes (21-26). Nothing to do with the second quarter.

Barça increased its defensive level and only committed four fouls to leave its rival with eight points and only three baskets at stake with the Palau delivered. The best play of the night came when Sertaç Sanli grabbed a defensive rebound, ran the entire court leaving an opponent sitting down and assisted Vesely to get a 2+1-

That action meant the maximum Barça income so far (30-24) and gave way to a new partial of 13-5 with Tobey in charge of the scoring tasks (13 points and five rebounds) and an extraordinary Àlex Abrines on his return after a head injury. The Spaniard scored from two, stole a ball and ‘nailed’ a triple. +6 PIR in 52 seconds!

The break was reached with 43-29 and Saras’ men maintained their defensive level in a third quarter in which only the mistake from the perimeter (2/16 in triples in the last 10 minutes) prevented the difference from acquiring scandalous dimensions.

Kalinic intensitythe abusive dominance under the hoops and a great basket by Sanli placed a +21 (55-34) to which a Pangos incapable of commanding reacted with a two plus one. Olimpia Milano got close to 16 points (57-41) before Higgins closed the fourth with a manual basket after bounce and Oriol Paulí with a stratospheric dunk… the fifth for his team.

The party was being total and was completed by a young player who points to ways of megacrack. With just turned 18, with 18 years in summer the Nigerian James Naji linked a sensational ‘cap’ to a remarkable Davies (the second) and two baskets in penetration after bounce with which he could not have even dreamed of when he debuted.

With 40 rebounds to 30 from his rival and an abusive advantage in PIR (90-48), the azulgrana team ended up winning 74-56 in a round match with the only ‘but’ of the lousy percentages in the outside shot with a sad 3/21 in triples (14.3%).