2020-21Regular SeasonRound 3
Valencia Basket 66
FC Barcelona 71
October 13, 2020 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 LA FONTETA

Barcelona rallies to triumph in Valencia

FC Barcelona bounced back from last week's loss in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by downing Valencia Basket 66-71 at La Fonteta on Tuesday. Both teams now have 2-1 records in the standings. Rolands Smits led the winners with 15 points, Nick Calathes added 14, Brandon Davies and Alex Abrines each had 11 and Cory Higgins scored 10 for Barcelona, which was without star forward Nikola Mirotic. Nikola Kalinic and Bojan Dubljevic led Valencia with 13 points apiece. A 0-16 run that bridged the final two quarters allowed Barcelona to take control of the game for good.


Smits got Barcelona going with a layup, but Dubljevic and Derrick Williams soon gave Valencia its first lead, 4-2. Smiths buried a triple and added a running hook, but Dubljevic singlehandedly kept the hosts ahead, 11-9. Klemen Prepelic followed a fast-break layup with a floater and Higgins and Williams traded three-pointers. Calathes kept the guests close at 19-16 after 10 minutes. Abrines tied the game with a bomb from downtown early in the second quarter. Fernando San Emeterio answered from beyond the arc and Mike Tobey matched Calathes's coast-to-coast basket with a layup for a 24-21 Valencia lead. Louis Labeyrie joined the three-point shootout and Sam Van Rossom added a layup, but Smits and Davies brought Barcelona within 29-26. Labeyrie chipped in with a put-back basket and Guillem Vives scored twice in penetration, prompting the guests to call timeout at 35-31. Davies scored down low to fix the halftime score at 35-33.

Back-to-back baskets by Calathes gave Barcelona the lead soon after the break. Vives downed a three-pointer and Kalinic scored off a blocked shot for a 40-37 Valencia edge. Davies and Victor Claver rescued Barcelona and Calathes scored in transition for a 42-43 Barcelona lead. Williams dunked, but Abrines followed a three-pointer with a jumper. Pierre Oriola, Smits and Claver each scored in the paint to make it a double-digit game, 44-54, after 30 minutes. Abrines downed another three-pointer early in the fourth quarter and Oriola dunked to break the game open, 44-59, after a 0-16 run. Van Rossom and Vanja Marinkovic tried to change things for Valencia and Dubjevic capped a 7-0 run with a floater. Calathes scored again and a three-point play by Davies seemed to seal the outcome, 53-64. Kalinic had other ideas, however, as he singlehandedly brought Valencia within 60-66 with less than 3 minutes left. Davies scored down low and Adam Hanga added free throws that sealed a tough road win.

Pivotal performer

Rolands Smits stepped up in Nikola Mirotic's absence with a career-best performance. Smiths, the 7DAYS EuroCup Rising Star award winner for the 2016-17 season, finished the game with a personal-best 15 points and no missed shots - 3-of-3 shooting inside the arc, 3-of-3 from downtown. He added 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 2 fouls drawn for a PIR of 23, also a new career-high.

Game-changing moment

A fast-break dunk by Williams gave Valencia its last lead, 44-43. Barcelona found a go-to guy in Abrines, who scored half of the points in a 0-16 run which he opened with a triple and a jumper. By the time Oriola dunked, Barcelona led 44-59 and was well on its way to a well-deserved victory.

Stellar stat

Barcelona shot the ball a little bit better inside the arc and that allowed it to win the game. Barcelona made 23 of 35 two-point shots (65.7%) and limited Valencia to 18-of-34 shooting on attempts inside the arc (52.9%). Calathes made 7 two-point shots, which was more than in Rounds 1 and 2 combined (5).

Did you notice?

Barcelona went to the foul line for the first time with 4:25 left in the game - on a three-point play by Davies. It ended up making 4 free throws, its lowest since sinking 3 in Game 5 of the 2019 Playoffs against Anadolu Efes Istanbul on May 1.

Next game

Barcelona returns to EuroLeague action later this week when it takes on Panathinaikos OPAP Athens on Thursday, October 15. Valencia's Round 4 game against Zenit St Petersburg will not take place. Multiple players of Zenit St Petersburg have tested positive for COVID-19 and the team does not have at least eight players on the Authorisation List fit to play.

Nick Calathes - FC Barcelona - EB20
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: CHRISTODOULOU, CHRISTOS; MAJKIC, MARIO ; LAURINAVICIUS, JURGIS
Attendance: 400 (Tentative)
By Quarter1234
Valencia Basket1916922
FC Barcelona16172117
End of Quarter1234
Valencia Basket19354466
FC Barcelona16335471
Valencia Basket
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 MARINKOVIC, VANJA 5:58 3   1/3             1     1   -1
3 PREPELIC, KLEMEN 22:08 6 2/3 0/1 2/2   2 2 5   2   1 3 3 8
4 PRADILLA, JAIME DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 LABEYRIE, LOUIS 19:41 5 1/2 1/1   3 5 8 1             13
9 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 17:10 6 3/4 0/3         2   1       1 4
10 TOBEY, MIKE 10:43 2 1/5     2   2 1     1   1   1
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 28:28 13 3/6 2/6 1/3   1 1 2 2 1 2   4 3 9
14 DUBLJEVIC, BOJAN 29:11 13 4/6 1/3 2/2 1 7 8 2 2 2     3 4 20
16 VIVES, GUILLEM 20:18 7 2/2 1/2     1 1   2 3 1   2 3 8
19 SAN EMETERIO, FERNANDO 11:38 3 0/1 1/3     2 2     1   1   1 1
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 20:19 7 2/3 1/2   1 1 2 1         1   7
24 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 14:26 1 0/2 0/2 1/2 1   1 2   1     2 1 -3
Team           1 2 3     1         2
Totals 200:00 66 18/34 8/26 6/9 9 21 30 16 6 13 4 2 17 16 69
        52.9% 30.8% 66.7%
Head coach: PONSARNAU, JAUME
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 20:33 11 5/8   1/1 1 1 2 1 1       4 2 10
8 HANGA, ADAM 18:54 2 0/1   2/2 1 4 5 6 2 1     1 3 15
9 BOLMARO, LEANDRO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 30:28 15 3/3 3/3   2 5 7 2 1 3     1 2 23
13 HEURTEL, THOMAS 12:56   0/1       2 2 1   1   1      
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 19:14 4 2/6     1 1 2 1   4   2 1   -4
21 ABRINES, ALEX 21:09 11 1/1 3/8     2 2 1     2   1 1 11
22 HIGGINS, CORY 22:01 10 3/3 1/4 1/3   1 1 2   3   1 1 4 7
23 MARTINEZ, SERGI 2:37                              
24 KURIC, KYLE 5:14     0/2                   1 1 -2
30 CLAVER, VICTOR 24:50 4 2/2 0/4   1 2 3   1 1     3 1 1
99 CALATHES, NICK 22:04 14 7/10 0/2 0/2   3 3 5   2     3 3 13
Team           1 4 5               5
Totals 200:00 71 23/35 7/23 4/8 7 25 32 19 5 15 2 4 16 17 79
        65.7% 30.4% 50%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

PONSARNAU, JAUME
Valencia Basket
"Congratulations to Barcelona, because they played a consistent, smart game. They won the game doing a very good job. About the game, we competed well except in the third quarter, in which we played very badly and lost control of the situation. Their defense was beating our offense and the consequence is that, at that moment, Barcelona punished our mentality a lot. We probably didn't give our best answers. We tried but probably, if we had been more efficient, we would have had more options to win this game. What happened in the third quarter is that we had a good start and found good shots, but missed them. That lack of efficiency conditioned us. We brought in new players to see if we improved that efficiency but it didn't happen. At that moment, Barcelona played its best defense and we stopped. We had too many offenses in which we found a small advantage, but then stopped and we had to start over, with the ball away from the basket and a few seconds on the clock. Defensively, they were imposing things that were hurting us. That was leading us to a heavy loss but we found answers through our defense in the fourth quarter. We fought until the end."
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
FC Barcelona
"I am very happy about this win. It is a difficult week for us, obviously. We haven't been able to practice a lot and our team is a little bit out of rhythm. We showed some character today and this is something that we can build on, hopefully. Sergi [Martinez] played his role, which is what he has to do. We are in a bad situation with our big guys and Sergi can play '3' and '4'. He is practicing very well but clearly, he lacks some rhythm and experience, but the minutes we got from him were very important for us. No-one deserves more such a great game than Rolands [Smits]; he is practicing like few other players I have seen in my life. He is clearly missing experience and rhythm after not playing much in the last two years, but this was his opportunity and he took it. We have been very solid on defense all game long, but we didn't finish our possessions in the second quarter. They made a lot of shots in the final 4-5 seconds of their possessions and we didn't have the physical presence we want to have, not reaching the foul bonus in the opening two quarters. This is not good for us. We were a bit tougher on defense in the third quarter and were able to get some easy fast-break points, which are important in the EuroLeague."

Players

KALINIC, NIKOLA
Valencia Basket
"It was a tough game, obviously. I think we fought. We played decent defense, 71 points [allowed] against a talented Barcelona team is good, but on offense, we need to find some better solutions. It was a good fight but obviously, we missed some shots, lacked some concentration, some timing and spacing on offense and that was the key, in my opinion. We scored 66 points in the end. We are going to try to improve; we now have one week off, without a EuroLeague or a Spanish League game, so we will try to improve and win the next game."
CALATHES, NICK
FC Barcelona
"Our defense was the key tonight. They are really good offensively and our defense won us the game. That's how we need to play every night. Obviously, our offense will come. We have a lot of talent. If we get stops on defense, it will be easy for us to play offense. We have a lot of talented players, obviously, Niko [Mirotic] is a big part of our team, but when one man goes down, we've got to pick it up and want it more. Obviously, Roland stepped up huge for us, and everybody else. We are going to have to do that through these games and build some toughness and get some wins."
SMITS, ROLANDS
FC Barcelona
"In the second half we started to play tougher, harder defense, and finally we won. I need to be ready every time and take my chance."
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