“It has been a face to face or cross. I could have won anyone but in the end we have not been lucky.” Thus, Joan Peñarroya valued the defeat of Barça this Tuesday on the runway of As Monaco (85-84) in the fifth match of the quarter-final playoff match of the Euroleague, a very painful setback because he left out of the final Four of Abu Dhabi (May 23-25) to the Barça team when he had been very close to consummating the feat of raising a 2-0 against 2-0 against.
Barça had options until the end. The Barca team entered the last minute ahead (83-84) and had two shots to change the 85-84 that put Mike James to 55 seconds from the end. first, a triple Justin Anderson failed to 32 seconds from the conclusion and, after the shot failed by Papagiannis in the Mónaco attack, Kevin Púnter did not succeed later in the last attack of the game. The American escort captured the rebound under his seven -second ring from the end, advanced with the ball to the rival hoop and chose to throw a triple distant before the pool of Papagiannis, a 2.20 player. The shot did not even touch the hoop and there all the dreams of Barça vanished.
Pinter, for which Barça opted precisely for his reputation as a resolution player in the game finals, has not lived up at the decisive moment. And not so much for failing the shot but for its debatable choice to play a triple when the game situation- only a point of difference, rival defense and a giant defending it- advised a penetration in search of a nearby shot or, failing that, of a foul that would lead to the free throw line.
Pinter is one of the most resolutive Euroleague players in the last five minutes of the matches that are resolved by five or less points. But a review of this season’s meetings shows that most of its points in those tight finals come from free throws, just what he did not look for in the final play of Monaco. On the contrary, there has not been only once in the season in which Barça has won a game thanks to a winning shot.
Up on twelve occasions Punter has been the protagonist in an end to face or cross (or almost) of Barça this season and only in three of them the American actions were positive for his team. In Endesa League, he scored 8 seconds from the end the basket that put the final 74-77 on the track of the Dreamland Gran Canaria. In Euroleague, a two shot of his 3 seconds from the end placed the draw at 86 on the Baskonia track before Trent Forrest responded to leave the victory in Vitoria (88-86). His actions did led Barça to the victory in Belgrade against the Red Star, first with a triple to 9 seconds of the end that put the 82-84 (he would then tie 84-84 Yago Dos Santos) and then with a theft of the ball and basket that secured the victory in the final seconds of the extension (94-98).
However, on the other nine times when Pinter has had the ball in the final seconds, the American has failed when producing for his team. Three of them have lived in the Endesa League:
-Barça-Casademont (97-95): Loss of ball 13 seconds from the end with 95-93 on the scoreboard.
-Barça-Joventut (90-91): Triple failed on the horn to win at the end of regular time (76-76) and triple failed to win at the end of the extension with 90-91.
-Barça-Baskonia (89-93): Two shot to tie down 8 seconds from the end with the score in 89-91.
The other ‘clutch’ failed struck situations have arrived in the Euroleague:
-Monaco-Barça (85-84): Triple failed over the horn.
-Barça-redstrella (74-78): Lost ball 7 seconds from the end with 74-77
-Barça-Bayern (101-102): Triple failed to a second from the end
-Virtus Bologna-Barça (86-81): Lost ball 31 seconds from the end with 82-81.
-MacCabi Tel Aviv-Barça (86-88): Failure of two to 13 seconds from the end with 86-88.
-Panathinaikos-Barça (90-89): loses the ball 31 seconds from the end with 85-84.
