Vesely added another milestone

Like so often in his illustrious career, towering center Jan Vesely put team success above personal gain as FC Barcelona ground out a 72-70 home win over FC Bayern Munich to go 15-8 and boost its hopes of finishing in the top four at the end of the regular season.
Vesely being left on the bench was the only surprise in the starting fives of either team, yet the soft-spoken Czech emerged through a selfless display which also earned him an individual accomplishment he can be proud of. Having racked up 10 points and 9 rebounds to go fourth on the EuroLeague’s PIR all-time list, surpassing former Lithuanian great Paulius Jankunas, Vesely stayed as humble as ever when asked how he felt about hitting such giddy heights.
"It’s a good accomplishment, but I like to play team basketball more. My teammates have helped me reach this down the years but let’s go, we have to continue,” Vesely said in an interview after the game.
His performance takes nothing away from that of Sanli, who carried Barcelona early on and vindicated his selection in the starting five.
Mirotic was his usual composed self as he hit three-pointers when it mattered, notably a late one off the glass that gave Barcelona a 70-65 lead.
Bayern’s backup point guard Ognjen Jaramaz so nearly stole the show as he netted his team’s last 5 points to tie the score at 70-70 before Cory Higgins nailed what turned out to be the game-winning shot with 22.3 seconds left on the clock.
Jaramaz then failed with a three-pointer on the buzzer which would have given Bayern the win had it gone in, and the dynamic playmaker could not hide his disappointment.
"I feel bad because we lost, obviously, I had the last shot for the win and I missed," Jaramaz said after the game. "I feel really bad because of it, especially because of the game against Valencia where we had some good minutes but we were not consistent. If the little things had been different maybe we could have won that one and today – if we connect those two games – we could have been 2-0 this week instead of 0-2," he added, referring to Bayern’s 73-82 setback at Valencia on Tuesday. "It has left a bad taste but we have to move on."