FC Barcelona Lassa 76-71 Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv: Winning end to Euroleague at the Palau (76-71)

FC Barcelona Lassa were able to give their fans a win to celebrate in their last game of the Euroleague season at the Palau against a Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv that also had nothing to play for. It ended 76-71 with Tomic leading the FCB scoring with 15 points, followed by Koponen with 14.

Always on top

A 10-0 streak to open the game and shooting 7/13 in 3-pointers got Barça off to a flying start and they led 40-32 at the break. Maccabi were surprisingly slack in defence early on but used 3-pointers to good effect to get quickly back to 33-32, whereupon four from Tomic and a three from Sasha Vezenkov re-established a nice lead in time for the interval.

Staying ahead

Koponen came into his stride in the third period, and the blaugrana’s lead never really looked in danger until a Landersberg three at the end of the quarter narrowed the gap to four on 58-54.

Barça continued to play solid hoops in the last ten minutes, which they consolidated with a 9-2 streak to make it 63-54. Now they really were in the comfort zone.

Late drama

But a basketball game is never over until the buzzer sounds and a late Maccabi surge suddenly changed the whole mood of the game. There were nerves in both camps, but Barça were especially frozen, and going into the last minute the difference had been cut drastically to 71-69.

Maccabi had two strong attacks with which they could have equalised, while Barça squandered free throws that could have settled the game once and for all. But the Catalans managed to hang on until the end and although there sadly won’t be any more Euroleague play at the Palau this season, at least they were able to complete their home schedule with a win.