Barça fell in the Super Cup, still green due to the novelty of the project, with Grimau on the bench and without the leading light Mirotic because he wanted more money and ended up in Milan, replaced with a Willy Hernangómez who came to join under the hoop, but who lost the pulse before the undaunted Vesely. The team also lost in the Cup against Madrid in the final, unable to say theirs in the last quarter, despite the coach’s protests; and derailed in the playoffs of the Euroleague in the fifth game against Olympiacos, goodbye to the Final Four and luminous threat of spending a season in white, Barça now taking refuge in the playoffs of the Endesa League after finishing the course in third position. After beating Lenovo Tenerife on the fast track, they can also close the course in the semifinals, since they lose 2 to 0 against Real Madrid. Capable of the best and the worst, in any case, from the Palau they dream of the feat. But if they depend on free throws in hot moments, they are fine.
There has been no worse team than Barcelona from 4.60 meters, a torture that is difficult to explain, a trembling without remission, a bad tooth throughout the course. “Going down to these limits in what is the simplest shot in basketball, because it is unopposed and mechanical, is very strange,” concedes an authoritative voice from the Barça section. “These figures are not understood beyond the fact that the matter has become a bit of a blur until it undermines the safety of the players, because when you fail repeatedly…”, adds another source from the club from the corridors of the Palau. The numbers are clear. Barça has the worst percentage of free throws in the Endesa League, since with 72.2% – they made 14.5 of 20.1 attempts per game – they were last, behind Bilbao Basket and Granada ( 72.3%) and very far from Real Madrid (80.8%), the leader in the statistics. The same thing happened in Europe, as they closed the classification with 72.6% success, narrowly surpassed by Olympiacos 73.2% and Panathinaikos (73.9%), light years behind the leader Partizan (81.9% ) to which Madrid succeeded (81.8%).
“With these statistics, fouling Barça has been a resource for the rivals because the hoop was too small for us,” admits an official voice of the club, who affirms that it will not be because they have not trained – the players practice before and after every session for months – but rather it is a matter of loss of confidence. Although there are more reasons to explain the drop (especially if you take into account that last year it was the leader in the ACB with 78.5% and seventh in Europe (80.1%)), since great shooters like Higgins, Mirotic, Kuric or Sanli took those of Villadiego. “If we had been more successful from the free throw line there would have been four or five games, maybe more, that would not have escaped us,” they lament from the Palau. But there are several whose wrists have shrunk. In the ACB this was the case of Da Silva (57.9%), Hernangómez (69%), Nnaji (64.7%), Paulí and Kalinic (66.7%), Parra (71.4%) and Jokubaitis ( 71.4%), all below the worst possible threshold. Only Ricky Rubio (89.7%), Parker (84%), Abrines (82.1%), Laprovittola (80.8%) and Brizuela (81.3%) were reliable. In Europe, more of the same because Nnaji (41.9%), Kalinic (58.1%), Da Silva (60%), Jokubaitis (65.2%), Parra (69.2%) and Hernangómez (70 .9%), in addition to, strangely, Satoransky (72.1%) and Brizuela (72.7), did not measure up. Figures only made up by Abrines (85.7%) and Rubio (85.2%).
“This drop in statistics is very strange because in triples we have very good numbers,” they reflect from the halls of the Palau, since Barça was the best in the league in statistics, with a 40.3% success rate. followed by Baskonia and Valencia Basket (37.7%). In Europe it was more discreet, since with 36% accuracy, it is 12th out of 18, far from Fenerbahçe (39.5%). “You can say that we have gotten this far despite the free kicks,” says an authoritative voice from the club, impatient now to see how the team reacts in the playoffs of the Endesa League. For now, in any case, in the semifinals they have shown good shooting from free throws, 28 of 35 (80%). But Madrid does not give up and they know that if the game depends on that, the precedent is not good.
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