Barça Lassa 83-90 Unicaja Malaga: All goes wrong in the end

 An unfortunate end to a tight match. Barça Lassa lost  83-90 at home to Unicaja Màlaga in a game that either side could have won but the Andalusians got things right when it really mattered.

The result leaves the Catalans 4-9 in the Euroleague, in thirteenth place and three wins short of a playoff berth. There will be a chance to make up lost ground in the second European game of the week this Friday at another fellow ACB club, Baskonia, at 8.30pm CET.

The home side were moving the ball around nicely early on in the game, but their guests always seemed to find and answer, and by the second period were generally ahead until a Sanders slam-dunk got the blaugrana back in control at 31-30.

With the teams wearing ‘One Team’ on their backs instead of name in support of the Euroleague’s charity initiative, eight consecutive points from Heurtel set up the first meaningful lead of the game at 41-35 and Barça led at the interval (45-44).

Barça kept that lead intact for most of the third period, but Unicaja Màlaga bit back and led themselves by a similar margin for several minutes before the scores start levelling up again.

With three minutes to play it was still anybody’s game, but that’s precisely when Malaga moved things up a notch and Barça Lassa failed to find a response. The difference became as wide as 12 points, an unassailable lead – although Barça chopped that margin down by five, that was not enough to avoid a frustrating loss (83-90).