FCBARCELONA.CAT

12.06.2007 10:10

Winner takes all

Carles Cascante

It has gone down to the very last game. Game Five. The hour of truth. It’s Tau v Barça, and one of these teams is on the way to the ACB Finals, while for the other, tonight marks the end of a very long road.

Concentration, confidence and ambition were the words on everybody’s lips at the Barça hotel in Vitoria. The Catalans, who have already experienced three wins at the Fernando Buesa Arena this season, are unfazed by the way this best-of-five series will be decided on the road. There is a lot at stake tonight though, including the confirmation of a Euroleague berth next season.

Dusko Ivanovic’s team: A lot of intensity is required, especially in defence. That was the basis for Barça’s wins against Tau in this series, and every member of the squad needs to have faith in their possibilities of securing a place in the ACB Finals series with a win in Vitoria tonight. This will be the tensest of all the games played so far, and control of the rebound could prove decisive, especially when it comes to keeping the ball away from Splitter and Scola. Ivanovic has brought in Mario Kasun to do just that.

But something else to consider tonight are three pointers, where Jaka Lakovic proved his worth in game 28 of the regular season against the same side. The Slovenian will need to produce something similar tonight, although in Gianliuca Basile and most of all Juan Carlos Navarro, Barça have the players to help. The latter said this week that he is totally confident of his team’s possibilities, saying “we have already shown on two occasions that we can win here”.

Bozidar Maljkovic’s team: Those who wrote off Tau’s chances made a big mistake. Game four went right down to the wire, and the Basques once against showed their full class and proved why they were deserved winners in the regular season. And this team is not just about Scola. Tau are an intelligent block of players, both in the long and short game, as Erdogan and Scola have been demonstrating throughout this series both on and off the paint.

Igor Rakocevic has not been performing as well as might have been expected in these play offs, but everybody knows that the former Pamesa and Real Madrid man has the potential to turn any game in a second. And then there is Bozidar Maljkovic. The wily Serb knows the game inside out and knows exactly how to balance a good offence with strength at the back. And Tau also have momentum on their side. After bouncing back from nowhere to keep this series alive, they now have home court advantage going into the final game. But Tau have never won game five in an ACB series, and that counts well in Barcelona’s favour.

Pre-match opinions: Ivanovic recognises that the loss in game four at the Palau “saw a great opportunity go to waste”. But the Barça boss, who has a torrid record against Tau since taking over at the club, feels he has cracked the formula to beat them. The Montenegrin, formerly a coach of the Vitoria based club, has won on two of his last three trips to Tau.

The Argentinian stars in the Tau ranks, Pablo Prigioni and Luis Scola, know it will be a tough game tonight. “There is no time left for surprises” said Prigioni. Meanwhile, Luis Scola feels it will be “the small details” that will decide who wins game five of what has been a terrific semi final series.