Barcelona, May 1 (EFE) .- Barça will receive Monaco on Friday in the fourth game of the quarterfinals of the Euroleague (20:45 CET) with the aim of redoubled the bet that led him to win the third duel of the series (100-89) and thus force an eventual fifth match, which would be played next Tuesday in the Principality.
Once the physicist of the Monegasque team in the first two clashes of the tie (97-80 and 92-79), the team trained by Joan Peñarroya reacted in the third assault, the first of the two that will house the Palau Blaugrana, and dodged the elimination with a large choral performance.
In attack, he highlighted the irruption of the pivot Willy Hernangómez, who signed 19 points, 10 rebounds and beat his personal valuation record in the competition (31) after having played a secondary role throughout the course. The Spanish international captured 7 of the 14 offensive rebounds of Barça, a key aspect in the Catalan victory.
In fact, the Barça team surpassed Monaco in the total rebounds (32 to 27), which limited the points of the rojiblanco team in second opportunities and, in turn, allowed those of Peñarroya to easily write down in these situations (16 to 11) and impose the rapid rhythm that best suited them, something they did not achieve in the two previous games.
Beyond maintaining solidity under the boards, Barça must take care of the ball as well as in the last match. He went from losing 11 balls in the second game to 8 in the third, which resulted in 23 to 8 at points after loss and in 12 to 0 at points to the counterattack, when in the previous duel the balance had been from 16 to 8 and 8 to 4, respectively, favorable to the Monaco.
Keeping concentration, energy and defensive activity will be decisive for Barça aspirations, which needs to be solid back to be able to run and share the ball. For something is the third team that distributes the most assists of the Euroleague (19,8), a guarismo that surpassed in the third game (21), after falling short in the previous two (11 and 17).
Likewise, as Peñarroya himself pointed out on Wednesday, among the few aspects to improve by the Catalans is the marking on the base Mike James and the escort Elie Okobo, which signed 20 points and 12 assists, and 19 points, respectively, in the third meeting.
Finally, Barça will once again count on the casualties of the pivot Jan Vesely, the Nico Laprovittola and Juan Núñez bases, the escort Dame Sarr and the wing-votet Chimezie Metu, while the base Nick Calathes is the most significant absence of the Monaco. EFE
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