Barcelona — CSKA, 01 October 2020

Barcelona vs. CSKA: 76-66 (-10)

Barcelona: Oriola (3 to + 4 pf), Abrines (13 + 7 rb + 3 as), Higgins (8 + 4 as + 2 st), Mirotic (17 + 7 rb + 4 st + 5 to), Calathes (7 + 3 rb + 7 as) – start; Davies (18 + 4 rb + 3 to + 4 pf), Hanga (7 + 3 rb), Bolmaro (DNP), Smits (2), Heurtel (4), Pustovyi (DNP), Claver (4 rb)…

CSKA: James (13 + 4 as + 6 to), Ukhov (3), Voigtmann (2 + 4 rb + 2 as), Shengelia (15 + 5 rb + 3 as), Kurbanov (0) – start; Bolomboy (6 + 4 rb + 3 to), Khomenko (DNP), Hilliard (8 + 3 as + 5 pf), Hackett (11 + 2 as), Antonov (DNP), Clyburn (8 + 4 rb), Lopatin (DNP)…

Congratulations to Barcelona. They played better and deserved to win this game. Regarding my team and the game in general, we will get into the deep analysis. We have a lot of things to say, but over here, in a short period, I would say this: that the game was decided in the first and fourth quarters, which Barcelona won by 13 points, and on the second and the third, we won by 3 points. Why I am saying this? Because on the first and fourth quarter, we turned over the ball 12 times and this is why we lost the most, and in the second and third quarters, we turned over the ball only 4 times. This is the quarter, the third quarter, in which Barcelona had 7 turnovers. We managed to force turnovers and get steals, but we came to shoot over here with 29% three-pointers, 66% free throws and 46% in twos. Definitely, that goes in the side of Barcelona and its defense, but I think we have pretty experienced guards, forwards and bigs that can handle the ball in each and every situation. As I said, congratulations to Barcelona but with so many turnovers and that poorly shooting ability, we came to 57-55 with 8 minutes to go and we had a good defense and an open look. We gave our fight, but that is not enough for this level. Inevitably, we were missing rhythm. We were slow. We had a bad execution and not the spirit or the mentality to go and fight from the beginning, so Barcelona, well-deserved, won the game.