Barca tops ALBA, 72-56, to clinch home-court advantage

FC Barcelona clinched home-court advantage for the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs by downing ALBA Berlin 72-56 in Round 32 at Palau Blaugrana on Thursday. Barca improved to 22-10 after recording its fourth consecutive victory. It is also on a six-game home winning streak. ALBA dropped to 9-23 and has been out of the playoffs race for several rounds already.
Sertac Sanli paced the winners with 12 points off the bench. Nikola Mirotic added 11 while Nikola Kalinic had 10 for Barca, which committed only 7 turnovers and pulled down 14 offensive rebounds. Yanni Wetzell led the way for ALBA with 9 points.
Game Videos
Jan Vesely, Mirotic and Kyle Kuric each buried a jumper in a 6-0 run that gave Barca an early 10-5 lead. Tomas Satoransky's three-point play soon boosted his team's margin to 15-9. Johannes Thiemann and Jaleen Smith rescued ALBA and when Ben Lammers added a three-pointer and a couple of layup, the visitors were in charge, 19-21, after 10 minutes.
Yovel Zoosman and Malte Delow each hit a triple to cause Barca to call timeout at 21-27. Sertac Sanli and Mirotic stepped up for the hosts and Nico Laprovittola's consecutive layups put Barca ahead, 34-33. Delow hit a wild buzzer-beating jumper for a 34-35 ALBA edge at the break.
Kuric buried a three-pointer soon after the break and followed Mirotic's layup with a jumper for a 41-39 Barca lead. Nikola Kalinic took over with a three-point play and got help from Rokas Jokubaitis and Sanli to establish a 50-42 Barca lead after 30 minutes.
Kalinic followed a layup with a triple, and an unstoppable Sanli boosted the hosts' margin to 60-45 with over 7 minutes left. LIttle changed after that as Barca kept a double-digit margin all the way until the final buzzer, cruising to an important win.