Nikola Mirotic Barcelona
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball

Barcelona took the home win with a score of 76-65 against Crvena Zvezda, which couldn’t stop the extraordinary performance of Nikola Mirotić.

The taste of victory for Barcelona was even tastier, because the Spanish squad played its jubilee game in the EuroLeague. Against Crvena Zvezda, Barca played its 500th match in the best European club competition. After CSKA did it first last week, Barcelona was just the second club to join the Club 500.

Barcelona’s forward had an amazing shooting night. Nikola Mirotić didn’t miss two-point shots (4/4), missed one free throw (9/10), and only one shot for three (2/3).

The unstoppable Mirotić wasn’t the only thing that separated Crvena Zvezda from the second win of this week. The home team’s defense did a fantastic job in the first quarter, allowing Zvezda to score only six points. And what was even better, the team of Šarūnas Jasikevičius totally halted Jordan Loyd. The excellent American guard was only able to score two points from the free-throw line (0/4 for two, 0/4 for three, 2/2 from the free-throw line).

During the game, the home team was controlling the tempo. For the majority of the time, Barcelona was leading by double digits. Crvena Zvezda woke up late. And even it looked like the team from Serbia could prevail, the Spanish squad knew what it was doing.

The game’s star Nikola Mirotić scored 23 points in total (PIR of 31), Pierre Oriola added 12, and Nick Calathes 10 (with eight assists).

For Crvena Zvezda, only Dejan Davidovac scored more than ten points – 12.

Game recap