Euroleague day 17
Will the NBA arrive in Europe in 2027 or has it already arrived? This Friday, Barcelona and Baskonia played a match worthy of the basketball Mecca. The Barça team won with such an unprecedented score, 134-124, that the play of the two teams was spectacular and vibrant to decide a clash resolved after three overtimes.
The victory allows Xavi Pascual’s group to reach Hapoel at the top of the Euroleague and extends Vitoria’s drought away from home in European competition: they have not won since December 17, 2024 against Maccabi in Israeli exile in Belgrade. At the Palau he touched victory and the end of the curse with a momentous and exceptional performance, but without reward for the heroic resistance of the Barcelona team.
Barcelona became the highest-scoring team in Euroleague history, surpassing the 130 points that Madrid added against Efes on January 6, 2024 in a match resolved after four overtimes. And with Baskonia (258 points between them), they signed the duel with the highest scores of the competition, above the 256 of this confrontation between whites and Turks.
It was a night full of colossal individual performances, especially from Kevin Punter with 43 points and the team behind him in overtime. Satoransky improved to 23 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists. In Baskonia, Imperial Markus Howard contributed 33 points and didn’t miss a shot until the first overtime, and another wonder like Luwawu-Cabarrot brought his statistic to 26.
As an example of offensive diffusion, Barça had received 72 points on average since the arrival of Xavi Pascual on the bench a month ago. Baskonia gave them 97 in regulation time and only remained dry in the final overtime. Galbiati’s side showed excellent ball movement in Palau to find their freed men and destroyed Barca’s usual defensive force with Pascual.
The Barcelona team, deprived of the injured Shengelia and Vesely (Clyburn also fell), struggled to maintain the rhythm and only came back in the final minutes when both teams released their chains and the duel gave rise to a beautiful exchange of blows worthy of the NBA.
BARCELONA, 134; BASCONIA, 124
Barcelona: Satoransky (23), Punter (43), Clyburn (12), Norris (5), Willy (12) -starting five-; Parra (7), Fall (0), Brizuela (11), Marcos (0), Cale (5), Keita (9), Laprovittola (7).
Basconia: Forrest (9), Howard (33), Radzevicius (3), Kurucs (9), Diop (14) -starting five-; Diakite (14), Simmons (4), Luwawu (26), Spagnolo (0), Frisch (7), Omoruyi (5).
Partials: 17-26, 30-27, 23-22, 27-22, 9-9, 16-16 and 12-2.
Referees: Lottermoser, Nedovic and Attard. They eliminated Forrest and Diop.
Palau Blaugrana: 5,462 spectators.
Euroleague results and standings.
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