Tonight Barça Regal has an appointment with destiny at the Palau Blaugrana. In an all or nothing match, the Blaugrana will host Panathinaikos for the fifth and final match of the Euroleauge's quarter-finals. Tip off is at 21.00.
What’s at stake? Passage to the Final Four in London. Tonight’s match will pit the best players in Europe against each other: Juan Carlos Navarro vs. Dimitris Siamantidis, Ante Tomic vs. James Gist, Nathan Jawai vs. Sofoklis Schorsanitis ... and on the bench, Xavi Pascual vs. Argiris Pedoulakis. It’s going to be basketball in its purest form tonight, you won’t want to miss it.
Crowd out the Greek machine
If Barça Regal want to succeed tonight they will have to repeat the defensive display they put at the OACA on Friday. Diamantidis, the Greek team’s best player, was off his game in the fourth match of the series largely due to Barça Regal’s ability to stifle his incredible style of play. Tomic, Jawai, Lorbek and Wallace will have to keep a close eye on the Greek player.
Gist, on the other hand, cannot be allowed to have too much space. His powerful and explosive drives are very difficult to stop once he gets moving. Nullify him, and you take away one of Panathinaikos’ best weapons.
Seize victory at home
Barça Regal are very difficult to defeat at the Palau. In fact, they’ve only conceded two losses this season in the Euroleague. To keep the streak going, we will need to see the best versions of Juan Carlos Navarro, Ante Tomic, Jawai, Erazem Lorbek, and Marcelinho Huertas.
