It was the shot seen round Barcelona, and Madrid … and, pretty much all around Spain.
With Barcelona down 78-80 with seconds remaining, Marcelinho Huertas quickly got the ball just inside Madrid’s half and opened fire on what looked like a hail mary three-point attempt.
The Brazilian’s prayers were answered, the shot banked in and the moment the ball went through; time expired. Barcelona recorded an 81-80 game one win over Real Madrid to go 1-0 up in the Liga Endesa Finals.
It was Huertas’ only points of the game, having started on the bench but they were the most important of all.
Juan Carlos Navarro led all scorers with 21 points supported by Erazem Lorbek’s 18 points for the Catalan side.
The reaction of the Real Madrid players said it all, they had led for the majority of this contest, it was reminiscent of the recent Euroleague final between CSKA Moscow and Olympiacos, as the visitors from the Spanish capital had enjoyed a comfortable 60-43 lead with with 3:46 left in the third thanks to a statement two-hand slam from Sergio Llull.
Barcelona though didn’t let their home fans down though, as they clawed their way back into contention. A turnaround jumper from Pete Mickeal narrowed the gap to 72-78 with 3:40 left in the fourth and with his last points of the game, Navarro connected on his trademark rolling three-pointer to tie the game at 78 with 44 seconds to go.
Llull, with Navarro for company, missed his three-point attempt with nine ticks left, but Huertas made sure of his.
Before the fireworks of the fourth quarter, the visitors had been the better side. Jaycee Carroll, who led Real with 18 points ran off a screen and drilled a three from the baseline off the feed from Sergio Rodriguez to give his side a 37-31 lead with 3:33 left in the second. They enjoyed a double-digit lead for large chunks of the third before Barcelona staged their dramatic fightback.
Game two is on Friday night.
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