FCBARCELONA.CAT

07.01.2010 22:11

C’est magnifique (64-90)

Sònia de Alba

Barça have won again, and are now 9-0 in the Euroleague group. They restarted the tournament in Asvel, and cruised to a 26 point victory.

Xavi Pascual and his side can do nothing but win in Europe, where they are the only unbeaten team, and are doing so thanks to some spectacular basketball and combining to perfection. Regal Barça controlled affairs from start to finish against Asvel, with the French side only causing a minor stir when they narrowed the gap to 10. In the end, it was a comfortable win: 64-90.

Patience

Regal Barça worked as hard as ever, knowing that the Gallic outfit plays physically, as shown from the very start when Traore opened the scoring. But Juan Carlos Navarro and Ricky Rubio soon made the difference with some terrific individual plays.

It was intense stuff. Vincent Collet’s side took an intelligent approach and kept Barça at bay, but they were playing catch-up from early on. The first period soon saw them go 7-14 down, and by the end of it they were 15-22.

Traore on the interior and Marshall on the perimeter kept Barça on their guard, and Rubio with another three (he ended 3/4) followed by Lorbek with two soon had the difference into double figures (34-45).

Asvel exhaust their options

The second period was much the same, with Asvel’s intensity merely serving to ensure Regal Barça never dropped their guard. A 6-0 streak soon had the sizeable crowd at the Astroballe hoping for a comeback.

Pascual responded with a crucial timeout. That was followed by a 0-9 run, with a screaming three from Navarro, and Barça were back where they were before. The home side was clearly getting frustrated and tired but never gave up hope of getting back into the match. They made changes in defence and started marking zonally, but another Ricky 3-pointer from almost eight meters proved that they were never going to stop the FCB machine.

Barça kept rotating the bench, and Asvel were confounded by the way no matter what switches were made, Barça still looked solid and compact. Morris scored his eighth point from behind the 6.25 line, displaying almost scandalous effectiveness. The American only missed one 2-point throw in the whole game and ended with the highest valuation of the match (18).

With Basile adding to the 3-point party, the visitors went 20 ahead, which they stretched to +28 with a series of counter attacks and dunks from Trias, Grimau and Vázquez. The captain slammed home the final points to make it 64-90 and round off yet another impressive win for Regal Barça.