Endesa League | An imperial Barça breaks into the semifinals with a triple hit

The Barça team broke the record for three-pointers in the history of the Endesa League play-offs and left it at 18

Saras’s team will face Unicaja in the semifinals with the first match on Wednesday at the Palau

A very successful Barça passed over Valencia Basket (64-87) in La Fonteta to access through the front door and by fast track to the semifinals of the Endesa League in which they will face Unicaja, their executioner in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey.

The team led by Sarunas Jasikevicius perfectly interpreted the defenses put up by a disjointed rival to break the record for three-pointers made in title playoff history and leave it at 18 with Mike Tobey as the author of the last one in the final stretch of the clash.

The azulgranas came out determined to end the match as soon as possible with a sensational defense that did not give spaces or grant comfortable shots to the ‘taronges’ to expose the doubts that have presided over a somewhat disappointing season in which the doubts have practically never disappeared.

The first quarter was a defensive clinic, ball circulation and success from the triple for a total of 6/10, 60% that decisively marked the clash. Jared Harper’s push was insufficient against an opponent who left by 10 points when only six minutes had elapsed with three-pointers from Abrines, Mirotic and Laprovittola (6-16).

Captain Bojan Dubljevic messed up an offensive rebound that led to a two plus one with an unsportsmanlike shot on Laprovittola by putting his foot out to bring him down (he wanted to go to the ball) and there a remarkable Kyle Kuric appeared to score his first basket of three and close the first quarter with a resounding 13-26 despite the desperate local attempts with defensive changes and feints with the 1-3-1 zone.

This time Barça did not lose everything when it was clearly ahead and The second quarter began with a 0-8 run that Sanli completed (13-34, min. 12:18) that forced the questioned Àlex Mumbrú to stop the game while some whistles were heard in La Fonteta. The Valencians improved slightly in defense and the game entered a phase of almost two minutes without points.

A triple by Josep Puerto and a basket by ex-Barcelona Víctor Claver gave life to the locals (18-34), but it was a mirage and the azulgranas maintained a clear lead of 17 points at halftime (26-43) after a final basket by Chris Jones (the first) and an attack that Satoransky was unable to finish off after a feint. Despite this, six losses in these second ten minutes left some room for doubt. And in triples, the difference was abysmal, from 1/9 local to 8/18 blaugrana.

The third quarter was firecracker. Barça circulated the ball patiently and at the same time with speed to score seven of the eight three-pointers that they launched to go to 15 and situate themselves two away from the record in the history of the play-offs with 10 minutes to go.

A lethal Satoransky opened the season with three triples in a row to make it 32-55 (min. 24:37) that multiplied the whistles in a Fonteta in which banners were seen against the team’s game and against his ‘boss’, Àlex Mumbrú . The Czech was relieved Lapro twice, Mirotic and Abrines to shoot the score up to 39-66 that at least the locals made up at the end of the third quarter with good minutes from Shannon Evans (45-67).

The former Betis player led a good local start (53-69), but Mumbrú sat him down and took a good puff. Of course, an 8-2 run forced the game to stop and a new triple by Sato (4/4) stopped the local recovery and fired again at the visitors (55-72 at 6:45 from the end). Hermannsson shone while the only unknown was whether Barça would reach the record for three-pointers in a play-off game. Abrines did it with 17th and Tobey beat him with 18th. In the end, 64-87 and… to think about Unicaja now.