Joan Peñarroya screams and Zeljko Obradovic screams next to him, but the decibels of the Stark Arena in Belgrade, a pressure cooker in which 20,000 throats are packed, disable any communication signal 40 seconds before the final horn. Nothing seems to affect Will Clyburn, who, with the game in possession, picks up the ball, dribbles, reverses, dribbles again and shoots from the spot to silence the Partizan pavilion and trigger stupor in the stands. A move, the last by the brilliant American striker in the Euroleague, that could well sum up this Barcelona’s performance: capable of assaulting the most feared places in Europe and consummating just two days later against UCAM Murcia the third defeat of the season in Palau.
This Friday, the Catalans measure this rampant irregularity against their sporting enemy, Real Madrid (8:30 p.m., Movistar+). It will be the first classic for Clyburn, who, arriving in Barcelona this summer, faced the Whites on 19 occasions wearing the shirts of Darussafaka, CSKA Moscow, Anadolu Efes and Virtus Bologna. With a balance of nine wins and ten losses, the Detroit forward averages 13.5 points, six rebounds and one assist per game against Madrid, numbers practically identical to those he recorded in his ten seasons in the Euroleague.
With Tornike Shengelia up in the air, suffering from a sprained ankle after the final league match against UCAM Murcia, Clyburn is forced to step up against Madrid. MVP of the 2019 Final Four, when he tasted continental glory with the last great CSKA, and member of the best Euroleague quintets that same year and in 2021, the American must regain a consistency that, at 35 years old, does not seem as guaranteed as in the past.
Indispensable like few times this season, the good performance of the Detroit forward will not, in any case, be enough for Barça to defeat Real Madrid this Friday in Palau, something that has not happened in the Euroleague since 2022, when the Azulgranas, then led by Saras Jasikevicius, defeated a Madrid that would end up winning that EuroLeague with an in-extremis basket from Sergio Llull. Therefore, Kevin Punter, Jan Vesely, Tomas Satoransky and Darío Brizuela must accompany Clyburn so that their team can put an end to a series of four consecutive defeats in Europe (eight in all competitions) against the Whites, desperate for an away victory that they have not yet experienced in the Euroleague under the command of Sergio Scariolo.
To that end, it remains to be seen whether Peñarroya will be able to count on Shengelia, who returns to training this Thursday, and another of the most important pieces of their offensive team: Nicolás Laprovittola. Injured in his left thigh in the European duel on October 3 against Panathinaikos, the Argentine playmaker returned to training this Wednesday with the group, to play minutes in a fundamental match for his team. “At the moment we are not achieving that communion of other times with Palau”, acknowledged the Barça coach this week in the May you play! from Cadena SER. “We need to make a greater effort to make our fans feel well represented. And to demonstrate this, there is nothing better than a game like the classic.”
Confident in the performance on the field of the starters, including, of course, Clyburn, the Tarrasa coach highlighted in his last press conference the second unit, who he asks for more to, among other things, not concede 34 points in the first quarter as happened last Sunday against UCAM Murcia. Aware of the effect of his words, especially in the face of a match of such magnitude, Peñarroya wanted to reduce the weight of the matter this Thursday. “We need everyone to contribute,” he said. “Last year we didn’t manage to win any classics, but I’m sure if we did now it would give us extra motivation.”