Barcelona – Armani Milano 73-75: Italian invasion ended unbeaten Palau Blaugrana

Armani Milano played an exemplary defense for three seasons and emerged victorious from Barcelona headquarters (75-73) in the two teams’ first game for the new year in the EuroLeague.

The guests relied on Sergio Rodrκεguez and Malcolm Delaney (one in each seat made the difference), saw Bentil do a great job on the bench, and got the win they needed to get close to the quartet. And that, although in the final the – wrongly accurate shot by Nikolos Meli ended almost fatally. But let’s look at the misplaced (three-point) effort of Nicolas Laprovitolas on the exhale.

And Barcelona? He’s been losing a number of times now, but the main thing is that he was defeated at Palau Blaugrana for the first time this season in the EuroLeague.

The race

The game had a bad rhythm in the first few minutes, Armani Milano kept a small lead that did not last long. Both teams had several problems in creation (4 assists for 9 mistakes in the first ten minutes), with Barcelona taking a small lead (21-19 in 14 ‘) thanks to the offensive rebounds. Gradually, however, Armani Milano took control of the situation, using the precision from the periphery (3/3 three points in the second half) and the action of Bentil as a main battle tank.

The formerly tall Panathinaikos OPAP did a great job as a power forward from the bench (7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals) and, together with Sergio Rodriguez (15 points with 6/10 shots), made a +7 (28-35) of the half . On the flip side, the 3/12 threesomes and 11 mistakes explained a lot about the bad image of the Blaugrana struggling to improve the data.

After the break it was like another game. Barcelona found excellent partnerships, suddenly opened the rhythm and escalated the situation. The Saronas Yasikevitsios players scored with enviable consistency (26 points with 11/14 inside the child) and scored +10 (51-41 in 28 ‘) at a time when the guests seemed unresponsive. Not for long, though.

The last period began with Armani Milano playing for a defense seminar. The guests kept the hosts just over four minutes without a point, which, combined with Malcolm Delaney’s race to catch up, allowed them to turn the situation around again. The experienced security guard had now taken the baton from Sergio Rodriguez, who was now in charge of the +2 (65-67) of the Italians in the two and a half minutes to go, while Saronas Jasikevitsous looked for answers.

And when Kyle Kuric and Nikola Mirotic scored two big threesomes in a few seconds, Malcolm Delaney and Niccol Μέ Meli were not discouraged and led Armani Milano to a really great away win after Nicolas Livo’s three against Nicolas Eisen.

THE REFEREES: Latisevs – Rocha – Nedovic.

THE TEN MINUTES: 14-14, 28-34, 54-47, 73-75.

BARCELONA (Jasikevicius): Davis 11 (5/8 two points, 1/2 shots), Sunley 2, Martinez, Smith 2, Hayes (0/3 shots), Laprovitola 6 (0/1 two points, 2/9 three points) , Higgins (0/3 shots, 1/1 shots, 4 assists), Kuric 22 (5/5 two points, 3/4 three points, 3/4 shots, 5 rebounds), Yokoubaitis 11 (1 three points, 4 rebounds ), 6 assists), Mirotic 18 (4/5 two points, 3/5 three points, 1/2 shots, 4 mistakes), Naji.

ARMANI MILAN (Messina): Kell 4, Meli 8 (1), Grant 6, Rodriguez 18 (3/6 two points, 4/6 three points, 4 assists, 4 mistakes), Tarzuski, Ritchie, Hall 8, Dilleni 15 (4 / 5 three points)), Hines 8 (4 rebounds), Bentley 8 (1 three points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals).

Team statistics – Barcelona: 20/31 two points, 9/24 three points, 6/9 shots, 24 rebounds (15 defensive + 9 offensive), 20 assists, 6 steals, 19 errors, 3 blocks.

Group stats – Armani Milano: 17/37 2 points, 10/17 3 points, 11/14 shots, 20 rebounds (13 defensive + 7 offensive), 14 assists, 10 steals, 16 errors.

The next commitments of the two teams: Barcelona will host Anadolu Efes for two nights (13/01, 10:00 p.m.), unlike Armani Milano, who after the postponement of the game against Unics Kazan in the Mediolanum forum due to the outbreak of the pandemic within the Russian team.