Barça overcomes Madrid’s physical commitment and wins the Cup

The barca came out the winner of the bloodless battle in which the King’s Cup Final. Two of the best teams on the continent moved a meeting to a figurative ring that ended up being transformed into a survival exercise. Rarely so much talent gathered on a soccer field basketball left such a discreet balance in a sporting spectacle. That is also basketball, some purists will say. The one with the defenses. Well, in that basketball of maximum tension and adrenaline, of tension, Barça also retained its championship title, knocked down Madrid (59-64) and consolidated the feeling of superiority against the white team that has been spreading in the last two years, since the arrival of Jasikevicius on the bench with miroticchosen the MVPand Jokubaitis as heroes of the battle. It is the fourth title in the last five years for the Barcelona fans.

CHAMPIONS, CHAMPIONS

the happiness of @FCBbasket with your title!#ACB Cup pic.twitter.com/RPbn5vVeVL

— #ACB Cup (@ACBCOM) February 20, 2022

With the precedents experienced this season between the two teams, clearly favorable to the Catalans, Pablo Laso had no choice but to make a move. And he did. The step he took was a bold move. He decided to dispense with the call for one of the pure point guards he has on the roster, Williams-Goss. He left the mission of lowering the ball to an outsider like Abalde, who has already played base functions in some phases of the season. And he opted for a powerful quintet, plenty of muscles and centimeters. It wasn’t a move he couldn’t foresee. But it had a devastating impact on the staging of the final.

The Madrid physically overwhelmed Barça in the first quarter, inferior in all the pairings, unable to move the ball fluently, to generate comfortable shooting positions, or to fight for the rebound with guarantees, especially after the wear and tear of the two previous crosses. For Laso’s team, which arrived in the final with one more day off, the semi-final match, hardly left any mark. For the Jasikevicius players, the clash with UCAM Murcia was an exercise in survival.

hard partial

As soon as he understood that the bet was paying off, confidence in Laso’s team skyrocketed and so did the differences on the scoreboard, until a bloody 19-5 at the end of the first quarter, which left the azulgranas in a very bad position. Only Mirotic managed to score, between the signs of bewilderment from his teammates, and Jasikevicius’s rotations in search of a quintet that could not only match the display of energy of their rival, but at least achieve a minimum of efficiency.

? DETAIL ?@Brandon_Davies0 cut the net #ACB Cup for your injured partner @chiggins11 @FCBbasket pic.twitter.com/AxqcpKqdQ7

— #ACB Cup (@ACBCOM) February 20, 2022

Barça stabilized the pulse slightly from the second period, but in no way managed to reverse the trend in a match with a lot of physical contact, allowed by the referees, in which they were unable to move the ball with speed, giving the advantage to the Real Madrid defense to anticipate at all times. Madrid lowered its score in a pulse in which to add each basket, entered the field of conquest, but Jasikevicius’ team did not find the spring to improve theirs, and their 18 points at halftime (29-18) already left clear the swampy terrain in which they moved.

The Mirotic effect

Mirotic was seen again, as in the semifinals, trying to drag the team around the locker room. In the middle of the offensive desert that was experienced in the match by both sides, three consecutive flashes of his (two triples) and an action of two points and additional shot, were a priceless oxygen bottle for the Barcelona fans who, suddenly, found themselves involved in the match again (39-35, m. 28). Although the sensations were not quite good, Barça began to feel more solid in defense and scored more points in the third period than in the entire first half and that gave way to a new game for the last set.

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Madrid seemed to assimilate this new scenario worse, which was disconnected at an offensive level and that helped Barça to find itself, for the first time, ahead on the scoreboard after a three-pointer from laprovittola and a basket of Calathes (46-48). The clock only increased the feeling of anguish on both sides, giving each basket a transcendental character. Hanga and Heurtel, two former Barça players, took a step forward but Jokubaitis exploded in the final stretch with his penetrations and a triple to give Barça a small margin, which Mirotic was in charge of finishing from the free throw line.