Alba Berlin sprung a major surprise in the 15th round of the EuroLeague, beating Barcelona on their home court by 74:70.
Barcelona played more than a solid first half, maintaining control of the score without significant fluctuations. However, Alba Berlin opened the third quarter with a 9:0 run, and from that moment, everything went in their favor. The Catalans stumbled from one mistake to another in their offense, ultimately suffering their third defeat in the last four rounds of the EuroLeague.
The top scorer for the winning team was Matt Thomas with 13 points, while Johannes Thiemann finished the game with one point less. On the other side, the only player in double digits was Nicolas Laprovittola with 15 points.
This win marked Alba’s third win of the season, and in the next round, they will host Fenerbahce. That match is scheduled for Friday. On the same day, Barcelona will try to find a way out of their crisis when they face Zalgiris in Kaunas.
Barcelona made an excellent start to this match. Nicolas Laprovittola and Nikola Kalinic created an early lead for the visitors with three-pointers (0:8), suggesting that the game might go in one direction. At one point in the first quarter, Roger Grimau’s team even had a +12 advantage (7:19). However, Gabriele Procida and Tim Schneider combined forces to reduce the deficit to 19:22 after ten minutes of play.
Barcelona also dominated the opening of the second quarter, but this time Sterling Brown had the answer. The former Milwaukee Bucks player prevented Barcelona from pulling too far ahead, contributing the most to the ‘only’ -3 at halftime (38:41). And then came the crucial minutes at the start of the third quarter…
Matt Thomas and Yanni Wetzell initiated a 9-0 run at the beginning of the second half, and a quick timeout by coach Grimau couldn’t help Barcelona. Despite three-pointers from Kalinic and Laprovittola briefly “putting out the fire,” Procida and Johannes Thiemann took complete control at the beginning of the final quarter.
In one of the last attempts, Barcelona closed the gap to 65:57 with Joel Parra’s points, but Thiemann responded with a new mini-run of 5:0. It then became evident that Barcelona was heading for another shock after losing to Milano at the “Blaugrana” last week. Thanks to solid defense and Laprovittola’s effective moves, the guests gave themselves another chance to come back.
At a score of 73:70 for the home team, Laprovittola and Kalinic had three-point attempts, but both were off target. A technical foul was called on Tomas Satoransky for stepping out of bounds during the inbound play, and Wetzell secured an unreachable lead with a successful free throw. In the end, it finished 74:70.