“Barcelona” crossed back to the Greeks, and R. Jokubaitis brought the arena to its feet – “bathed” Th. Walkup

On Friday, Barcelona won the match 77:69 (27:14, 16:23, 17:20, 17:12) and evened the result of the series to three wins (1:1).

This time, Barcelona started the match with a completely different attitude than in the duel held a few days ago – tight defense, hurricane attack, combativeness and tremendous contact: the hosts of the field accumulated a double-digit advantage in the first half.

After the first ten minutes, Roger Grimau’s students were ahead 27:14.

In the second half, the attack of Olympiakos rebounded – until then untamed long shots began to fall, the difference between the teams began to decrease.

The Piraeus team silenced the full Palau Blaugrana arena, but it was brought back to its feet by Barcelona’s tall man Jan Vesely, who shone with crushing shots. Barcelona went into the long break with a 43:37 lead.

In the second part of the match, the cauldron of passions continued to boil.

Former Real Madrid defender Nigel Williams-Goss became the leader of Olympiakos in the third quarter – he scored two important long shots in Barcelona’s basket, and then a two-pointer and overturned the result.

Willy Hernangomez, who played powerfully under the basket, pulled the home team forward after stopping – the Spaniard returned the role of the leading team to the Catalans. After three quarters, Barcelona was one step ahead – 60:57.

“Barca, Barca”, the Barcelona fans who filled the Palau Blaugrana began to shout louder and louder.

Their cheers pushed forward J. Parker, who hit his third long shot of the game early in the quarter. R. Jokubaitis also gained the confidence of the coach during halftime.

In the middle of the quarter, the Lithuanian made his opponents grab their heads – the defender “bathed” Thomas Walkup, who was defending against him, with a great move and scored an important two-pointer from mid-range.

The elated home team continued to be blown away by Alex Abrines’ and J. Parker’s long-range bombs – Barcelona regained a double-digit advantage and remained in front until the final siren of the match.

R. Jokubaitis contributed to the victory by scoring 6 points (3/6 doubles, 0/1 triples), rebounding 3 balls, making 4 assists and collecting 6 utility points in 19 minutes.

I. Brazdeikis, representing “Olympiakos”, did not play a single minute in this match.

The third match of the best-of-three quarterfinal series will be played in Piraeus on April 30.

Barcelona: Jabari Parker 24, Willy Hernangomez 11, Jan Vesely 10, Alejandro Abrines 9.

Olympiacos: Alec Peters 20, Nigel Williams-Goss and Shaquielle McKissic 10 each.