Semifinals have started in the best European basketball league as Real took on Valencia and Barcelona hosted Unicaja. Real and Barcelona are both considered favorites in their series and they demonstrated that in game 1.
Barcelona in particular showed their power as they dominated Unicaja from the get go and blew them out in the end 91-60. Unicaja didn’t seem ready to play in this one. Barcelona got every shot that they wanted, especially at the rim as they shot 70% for 2 in the game. However, Barca is also known for their shooting ability. They shot great again tonight from downtown scoring 13 threes compared to Unicaja’s 6.
Barcelona always has balanced scoring and same was on display in this game. Five of Barcelona’s players finished in double figures led by Tomas Satoransky who had 14. Fran Vasquez was the only one in double figures for the visitors. He had 10 points in the game.
Game 2 is on schedule for Sunday afternoon.
Game that was played night before between Real Madrid and Valencia was a much better contest as Euroleague champions edged out Valencia in the end 81-71.
Valencia was playing from behind almost throughout the game, but they managed to tie the game with 4 minutes left after a dunk from Serhiy Lishchuk. In the end there was too much of Rudy Fernandez and Andres Nocioni for visitors from Valencia. Rudy had 18 points, and Argentinian Nocioni nailed a big three with 6 minutes left to put Real up 9. Real managed to close the game out easily after that.
Kresimir Loncar led Valencia with 15 points, but he suffered a scary injury in the last minute. He tore his MCL a collision with his teammate Sam Van Rossom. At first it looked like a much bigger injury, but his ACL did remain intact. Still, he will be out for 6 weeks and that automatically means he’s out for this season. We all wish Loncar a quick recovery.
Game 2 of this series is also on schedule for Sunday.