In front of their audience at the Adidas Arena, the Parisians conceded a fourth consecutive loss in the Euroleague on Friday.
Lacking skill and dominated internally, Paris Basketball suffered the law of FC Barcelona and conceded its fourth loss in a row in the Euroleague (90-79) on Friday, during the 19th day.
Despite the few flashes of Maodo Lo (18 pts) and the 20 points of TJ Shorts, the Parisians quickly chased the score. And the late awakening of Nadir Hifi (14 pts) was not enough to overthrow the Barcelona side who lacked consistency this season in the Euroleague, but who put themselves back in the Top 10 thanks to this success.
«From the first quarter, we understood that they wanted to slow down the pace and play physical inside. (…) Our attack was not as fluid as usual. In defense we suffered on the rebound and we were unable to protect our racket. We must work to improve all of this», Commented Parisian coach Tiago Splitter after the meeting.
A return to the ranks
With this new setback, Paris has a record of 11 wins for 7 losses and now has two wins less than Monaco and Olympiakos, leaders of the Euroleague. If they remain fourth, the Parisians are only one victory ahead of Milan, 12th. However, the Brazilian manager does not want to start looking at the ranking: “If we focus on that, we forget the work that needs to be done. All I care about is how I can improve my team so that they play better in the next game.»
Still having a match in hand against Fenerbahçe which they will play at the beginning of March, after their withdrawal in mid-December, the Parisians will have the opportunity to get back to the top of the standings while the return phase has only just begun. But they will need to regain their skill and aggressiveness to repeat the good performances at the start of the season.
From the outset, the Barcelonans took advantage of the locals’ clumsiness and their superiority inside to lead by six points after ten minutes of play (19-25). They even had a lead of up to nine points in the second quarter (30-21), TJ Shorts and his teammates having run out of gas at three points with 15 consecutive failures (3/18 at halftime ).
Address failure
If Tyson Ward ended the series and woke up the 16,203 spectators at the Bercy Arena, an attendance record for a French club in the Euroleague, Willy Hernangomez (23 pts, 5 offensive rebounds) continued to rule the roost in the Parisian racket, helped by the former Villeurbanne resident Youssoupha Fall. Despite everything, Tiago Splitter’s players changed sides while only trailing by four lengths (36-40), notably thanks to Shorts’ 13 points and a winning shot at the buzzer from Yakuba Ouattara.
But the hoped-for revolt did not take place. Lacking confidence, the Parisians alternated between shooting failures and bad choices while the Barcelonans, always more aggressive under the basket, took the lead again at the end of the third quarter (55-65).
If Nadir Hifi sounded the revolt at the end of the match and made Bercy vibrate by bringing Paris to four points, the Barcelonans, accustomed to the final stages, made their experience speak for themselves. What Parisians still lack.
