Despite missing Four players, Coach Xavi Pascual's team found ways to dominate in the French capital
Injury-plagued Barca keeps soaring with triumph in Paris
Отчеты о матчах
3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 16 of 38
Regular Season
Paris BasketballPBB
6985
FC BarcelonaBAR
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It was a special night for FC Barcelona head coach Xavi Pascual. More than 15 years after leading Barça to the EuroLeague crown in Paris, Pascual returned to the French capital and guided his team to another big win.
In the 2010 Championship Game, Pascual and Barça bested Olympiacos Piraeus 86-68. Remarkably, the result on Tuesday was similar: Barça beat Paris Basketball 85-69.
It wasn't easy. Barca has been without playmakers Juan Nunez and Nico Laprovittola for a while, and the recently injured big men Jan Vesely and Toko Shengelia did not travel to the French capital for this game. Nevertheless, Barça put together one of its best first halves of the season. The teams was aggressive on defense, effective on offense and dominated all aspects of the game.
Barca found a go-to guy in Will Clyburn, who scored 13 of his 19 points in the first quarter on perfect shooting. Dario Brizuela came off the bench and did not miss a shot as he racked up 9 points in the first 10 minutes.
Clyburn kept rolling in the second quarter. His first missed shot was a desperation three deep from the right corner right at the halftime buzzer. He reached the break with 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting and 3-of-3 on free throws for a PIR of 24. By halftime, Barca had outrebounded Paris 22-13, forced the hosts into 9 turnovers and only allowed them to dish 5 assists.
"Indeed, we knew that we were missing guys and everybody had to pick up the slack in every way. So congrats to the guys. Everybody came out here and did their part today. And defensively, we were great, followed the coach's game plan," Clyburn said after the game. "We have a lot of talented guys on this team. And they helped me by being so talented. And I'm kind of in these situations where I'm open to shoot the ball. But congrats to the team today. There's never too much talent."
Without Vesely and Shengelia, Pascual changed his frontcourt rotation and Willy Hernangomez had another strong game in the French capital. Last season, Hernangomez led Barca to a 79-90 road win in Paris with 23 points and 10 rebounds for a PIR of 30. This time, Hernangomez saw limited playing time due to foul trouble but still managed to get 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals for a PIR of 21 in 19 minutes. Joel Parra helped at power forward with 11 points and 7 rebounds in over 30 minutes, and Kevin Punter was his usual self, leading all scorers with 21 points.
"It's something that we emphasize. They have been going to the offensive rebound especially really, really well. I think the first half, they only had 5 offensive rebounds, and we tried to minimize that. So it was a great game. We executed Xavi's plan... I'm proud of all my teammates," Hernangomez said. "We got this win here in Paris, which was really hard and now focus on the next one on Friday at home."
To wrap up a near-perfect night, Nikola Kusturica made his EuroLeague debut with Barça, becoming the youngest player to do so in club history with 16 years, seven months and 17 days, exactly the same age that Luka Doncic had in his Real Madrid debut. James Nnaji had Barca's record with 17 years, three months and 13 days.
Barca is now on a four-game winning streak and hosts Kosner Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in Round 16 on Friday, December 19.
