Barça dries up Tenerife at the Palau

Barça beat La Laguna Tenerife this Tuesday (100-67) at the Palau Blaugrana in the first match of the semi-final series of the Endesa League ‘Playoff’, leaving some Tenerife people dry who will have to change completely on Thursday to avoid going home empty while Barça, which perhaps played one of the best matches of the season, already knows what it must do to get closer to a long-awaited final.

Barça showed no mercy against a Tenerife team that had won both away games against Real Madrid in the quarterfinals. Furthermore, the defeat of the ‘culers’ at home against UCAM Murcia, also in the quarterfinals, was a warning. And from all this Barça drew one conclusion: go for it. And they did it, with a huge first half both on a defensive level, leaving the Tenerife team with 27 points at halftime, and on an offensive level, playing in an easy and collaborative way.

Barça was a gale that dried up the Tenerife lagoon. Xavi Pascual’s team increased their maximum advantage, which reached +33 in the last play, to never give any option to believe in the comeback to a Tenerife that, surely, chose not to get too tired once they saw that the game was, practically from the beginning, lost. They accepted the 1-0 loss and saved their strength to try to bring the series even to San Cristóbal de La Laguna.

The Blaugrana team marked territory from the opening jump with a 7-0 run led by a successful Juani Marcos, author of two early triples. Tenerife reacted with the help of Patty Mills and Thomas Scrubb to tie the duel (9-9), but that was the only time they could dispute the score with the locals. Barça’s defensive energy, with Clyburn stopping a clear visitor’s basket option before punishing the other hoop with a three-pointer, returned control to Xavi Pascual’s team at the end of the first quarter.

The match really began to break down in the second period. Laprovittola lit up the Palau with two consecutive triples and Barça went on an 11-0 run that shot the difference up to 18 points. Parra and Brizuela joined the offensive festival of a team that easily found advantages against an uncomfortable and lacking Tenerife. A very far shot from Laprovittola, practically on the possession horn, symbolized the Blaugrana’s confidence before Clyburn left the score at 46-27 with which both teams went to half-time.

Marcelinho Huertas tried to change course after passing through the locker room. The veteran Brazilian point guard led the best visiting minutes with Kevin Yebo, timidly reducing the disadvantage and trying to give some offensive continuity to the Canaries. However, each attempt at an approach found an immediate response from Barça, who punished again and again from different positions.

There Shengelia emerged strongly. The Georgian dominated both boards and linked a series of decisive actions, including two consecutive triples that returned the lead to over twenty points. When Tenerife seemed to have avoided the final blow, Brizuela signed a four-point action – triple plus additional shot – that ended up deactivating any visitor hope and left the game in doubt before the last quarter.

Tornike ‘Toko’ Shengelia was, along with Darío Brizuela, one of the best of a Barça team that put in one of those performances that deserves not to be pointed out, neither positively nor negatively, to anyone. Because the ‘culers’ were better in everything. And Pascual was able to give minutes to those players who, like the Spanish Willy Hernangómez, had been playing less. And the Spanish international took advantage of them well.

Barça did not hesitate against Marcelinho Huertas’ Tenerife, as always in what was their home. The Catalan team did not want to fall again in a Palau that should be a fortress in the remainder of the Endesa League. Tonight Tenerife equaled the score on one occasion (9-9), and could not get ahead. On Thursday, against a Tenerife that will surely offer a better face and version to try not to go against everything against the Canary Islands, the ‘culer’ fiefdom will have to go up a gear to help its Barça not to relax, to not take anything for granted.

The final stretch was already an exercise in absolute control by the Blaugranas. Brizuela continued to widen the gap, Willy Hernangómez took advantage of the minutes with several actions near the rim, including a dunk that lifted Palau, and the lead reached 31 points after a basket by the Madrid center. Laprovittola once again punished from the perimeter and Barça ended up signing their maximum advantage with Satoransky’s final 100-67. Both teams even let the last possession of a match completely decided and that leaves the Catalan team one victory away from traveling to Tenerife with the series on track.

TECHNICAL SHEET.

–RESULT: BARÇA, 100 – LA LAGUNA TENERIFE, 67 (46-27, at halftime).

–TEAMS.

BARÇA: Marcos (6), Punter (4), Clyburn (5), Shengelia (14) and Fall (6) –starting quintet–; Cale (6), Vesely (4), Brizuela (18), Satoransky (6), Hernangómez (8), Laprovittola (12) and Parra (11).

LA LAGUNA TENERIFE: Huertas (8), Sastre (-), Scrubb (9), Doornekamp (4) and Yebo (16) –starting quintet–; Fernández (2), Van Beck (7), Fridriksson (-), Abromaitis (7), Alderete (2), Guerra (3) and Mills (9).

–PARTIALS: 19-11, 27-16, 26-21 and 28-19.

–REFEREES: Peruga, Serrano and Torres. No eliminated.

–PAVILLION: Palau Blaugrana, 4,571 spectators.