Barcelona grabs second seed by beating Valencia, 85-71

FC Barcelona wrapped up the second seed in the playoffs, where it will face Zalgiris Kaunas, after grabbing a hard-fought 85-71 win over Valencia at Palau Blaugrana on Friday night. The hosts were particularly impressive on defense in the last period, allowing just 10 points to seal the outcome. The hosts extended their winning streak at home to seven games, good for a 23-11 record at the end of the regular season. Valencia slipped to 15-19 to finish 13th.
Nikola Mirotic paced the winners with 18 points on 4-of-9 shooting from behind the arc in 24 minutes. Alex Abrines followed him with 15 points and 6 assists, while Jan Vesely provided 13 points, 6 boards and 3 assists. Jared Harper was the only Valencia player to finish with double figures, scoring 14 points.
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The visitors had a good start with consecutive buckets from Kyle Alexander and Harper, good for a 0-4 early lead, but Barca reacted immediately with a 9-0 run, making it 9-4. Mirotic and Vesely were unstoppable in the early stages of the game, finishing the first period with 18 points, which proved key in Barca opening a 24-21 advantage after 10 minutes.
Valencia kept pushing and managed to get even closer, 24-23, although Barca used the threeball as a way of stopping the visitors' comeback attempts. Satoransky opened fire with a triple, then Abrines exploded with 5 bombs without a miss to boost his team to a 48-36 edge. The visitors didn’t roll over, though, with Harper stepping up to reduce the gap to 51-46 at halftime.
Vesely and Mirotic took over when the game resumed, helping Barca to stay calm, 59-50. Despite being outrebounded on both ends of the floor, Valencia resisted thanks to Shannon Evans and Jonah Radebough, who brought the visitors within 60-54 midway through the third period. But, Barca once again found a timely answer again from downtown, as Higgins struck from deep to stop the rally. Kuric then came up with another triple late in the period to keep the home team comfortably in charge, 72-61, entering the last stanza.
Both teams' offenses got stuck in the mud early in the four quarter, allowing Valencia to make it 72-65 with 7 minutes to go. A three-pointer by Radebough made it even tighter, 74-68, thanks to Barca scoring just 2 points in the first 6 minutes of the final period. The guests could not get closer than that, though, as Barca locked in in defense and held Valencia scoreless for the next 3 minutes. Vesely scored a bucket and Mirotic hit a triple that sparked a 9-0 run, which made it 83-68 and all but confirmed the outcome, as Barca wrapped up the second seed in the postseason.