In spite of the win thanks to an amazing finish, many FC Barcelona fans were not happy with the result. And it’s normal. It was a very lucky win against a low-cost team and this cannot work forever. You cannot beat Anadolu Efes or CSKA Moscow like this. Let’s not forget that Barca’s goal this year is to play at least the Euroleague final with the hope to win it. With this goal in mind, you cannot watch Baskonia’s 21-2 partial run with calm. And I will explain to you why.
The Basque club has a low-cost squad, made by acquisitions of brave players and completed by some youngsters like Kurucs, Sederskins and Raieste. If you take a look at yesterday’s game these young guys didn’t count at all. Add the fact that Ilimane Diop is playing nothing, being each season worse than the past one. Baskonia had actually 8 decent players. From those 8, Alec Peters is out of shape and finished scoreless and -2 on the index rate. So Barca got almost beaten by 7 guys.
The visitors could NOT stop this average team to pour them 21 points while the only answer was 2 points. Barca started the fourth quarter without scoring any points in the first 5 minutes. This is embarrassing with this millionaire roster. I am sure that in the summer if somebody proposed to Barca the signing of Raieste, Sederskins, Kurucs and even Jekiri, Fall, Polonara, Giedraitis, Henry, the club would have said that this is a joke. FC Barcelona is too big to add these names to their team. But it seems that is not too big when it comes to defending them. Then, it has some difficulties.
Things have to change. If in 23 minutes the sharpshooter Cory Higgins didn’t have any try from the arc, while Nick Calathes shot 0/2, Barca is not doing the right things on the court. And if you have any doubts, consult the index rate of each player: the Catalans finished with 72, less than the losing team that had 80 on this chapter.
