FC Barcelona 78-91 Bitci Baskonia: Second defeat in the ACB

48 hours after such a big win as the one at Anadolu Efes in the EuroLeague, Barça have failed to end the week on a similar high note. Tiredness was a factor as they were beaten by 13 points at the Palau Blaugrana by a more plugged in Bitci Baskonia, with Nikola Mirotic leading the home side with 20 points and 8 assists.

Baskonia believed in their options from the start and their quick 4-12 set the alarm bells ringing as Jasikevicius called an early timeout. Barça defence quickly improved but they gap had widened still by the end of the first period.

The tonic was the same in the second period, as the Basques went +18 at one stage. Barça needed to find more aggression, and they did, reducing the gap to 11 by the break.

The reaction was more fruitful in the third period, but Enoch (23 pts) was in outstanding form for the visitors, and try as they could, Barça just could not narrow the deficit.

The Palau still believed on epic comeback was a possibility, especially when they closed the gap to just six. But it was a false dawn, Baskonia held on for the win.

Next up is Real Madrid in the EuroLeague. That’s on Friday at 9.00pm CET.

MATCH STATS

Barça: Laprovittola (2), Hayes – Davis (10), Kuric (12), Mirotic (20), Sanli (10), Jakubatis (13), Caicedo (-), Oriola (-), Smits (-), Ubal (), Davis (7), Martínez (3).

Bitci Baskonia: Baldwin (11), Enoch (23), Giedraitis (11), Granger (5), Sedekerkis (8), Barrera (-), Costello (19), Fontecchio (2), Kurucs (), Marinkovic (4), Nnoko (6), Peters (4).

Periods: 12 – 22  // 23 – 24 // 19 – 22 // 24 – 23 //