Without João Peñaloya, Barcelona looked liberated and added their sixth EuroLeague win (74-75). The Barça team, led by clubman Óscar Orellana (20 years after he joined the Candidates), did a great job defensively, allowing them to take the lead in the first half and resist Bayern Munich’s push in the second half, as the leaders decided whether to sign Xavi Pascual or another coach.
Barça were not used to having so few points at half-time (32 points) and at the end (74 points). Dario Brizuela and his teammates managed to dry out Andreas Obst, one of the best shooters in the EuroLeague, and in attack the team managed to regain some composure with the introduction of Nico Laprovitla, who returned from injury, and lifted Barça up to 12 points (19-31).
Cliburn took advantage of changes in Bayern’s defense, which did not know how to stop its rivals. Spencer Dinwiddie, who scored half of Bayern’s points (12 goals) in the first half but was scoreless in the second half, did everything he could. He had a chance to take Bayern into overtime with two last-minute free throws, but missed the second. He closed the gap with a good second half, got more serious defensively and perished on Bayern’s shores who were stopping Barcelona’s scoring frenzy in the paint. But Orellana’s team stuck around, it was a cold-blooded team, and Toco Shengelia, the glue of this group, did a little bit of everything (10 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists).
Obst was having a bad day. 5 shots and no hits. But the German came on at the right time and hit his first triple with two minutes left (73-74). It wasn’t his night though, he missed the next two, the punter (who scored 4) also missed, and the last attack was made by Dinwiddie, who took a foul and extended the game for another 5 minutes, but because his hands were shaking, the Barça team ran to hug Orellana.
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