Barça has traveled to island lands to face This Sunday at 6:30 p.m., an always complicated visit to La Laguna Tenerife. And he did it with a good feeling after Friday’s hard-fought victory against ALBA Berlin with an exceptional protagonist: Darío Brizuela.
The youth squad of a Movistar Estudiantes who continues to purge his sins in the LEB Oro uncovered the jar of essences when the Berlin team had gone ahead Two minutes from the end of the third quarter (53-54) and those ghosts that never go away began to flutter around the Palau.
There the ‘Basque Mamba’ put on the superhero suit like Dika Mem does in handball in the words of her coach Carlos Ortega and completed ten sensational minutes to go to 18 points. With 53-54. Abrines once again put Barça ahead with a triple and The San Sebastian player linked two great baskets and a triple in the ‘fade away’ (leaning back when throwing) in just 68 seconds and the scoreboard reflected 63-54 at the end of the third quarter.
The 10-0 partial was not closed and Brizuela extended it to 15-0 in the middle of the festival to receive the ovation of the night when he was replaced. I was enjoying myself like a child in a puddle full of mud and with some katiuskas. When he has confidence and things go his way, the shooting guard is capable of deciding the games alone, as when he did in those quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey in 2023 against Barça. of Jasikevicius who largely paved the way for his arrival at the Palau.
The 2022 Cup
That February 16, 2023, Unicaja eliminated the Blaugranas in the defense of the title at the first opportunity against Unicaja, in the quarterfinals. It was in extra time and almost all the blame was on an immense Darío Brizuela which went to 27 points and +22 rating in less than 25 minutes with a great series (6/9 in two-pointers, 3/6 in triples and 6/6 in free throws).
It was the Copa del Rey for the Blaugrana… Well no! In a display of collective quality and perfectly directed by Ibon Navarro, Unicaja won the title at the Olímpic, but the European champion with Spain in 2022 would only score one point with -4 in the semis against Madrid (82-93) and seven with +4 and 0/2 in triples in the final against La Laguna Tenerife (83-80).
It was the perfect demonstration of that irregularity that has so marked the career of one of the most talented players and more plasticity of Spanish basketball in recent times. Perhaps he lacks height to play as a shooting guard (1.88 meters), he lacks dribble speed to play as a point guard and it is a fact that he does not have the body to play as a forward. Above all, it is a matter of trust.
The ups and downs
Barça bet heavily on his signing in the summer of 2023 prepayment of just over a million euros to the Malaga club to forget the problem of quotas (Willy Hernangómez and Joel Parra also arrived) and to refresh the outside positions with a player who had also played at a high level with Scariolo to win the aforementioned Eurobasket just over two years ago. .
The Basque has offered great moments as a Blaugrana with many others in which he has not known how to take advantage of his opportunities. Brizuela enjoys both when he looks in good shape and suffers the days when what he conceives in his head does not come out. ¿Joan Peñarroya will get rescue him from those doubts as Scariolo and to a certain extent Ibon Navarro did?
The current situation could benefit him, with Satoransky obfuscated in attack and Juan Núñez still green to take full responsibility. The coach has recovered Laprovittola perhaps temporarily for a base position that he abandoned in the ‘Saras era’ and has used Kevin Punter and the Gipuzkoan sporadically in leadership. Time will tell if Brizuela always manages to be Brizuela.
First marathon
The calendar has been somewhat benign so far, but today the first series of matches begins with hardly any rest of the ‘Peñarroya era’. Barça visits La Laguna Tenerife at 6:30 p.m. who is directing for the seventh consecutive season a Txus Vidorreta team with which Darío Brizuela played five Endesa League games in the 2013-14 season at Estudiantes (he combined it with the EBA subsidiary like Juancho Hernangómez).
The blaugranas have won their two games (91-65 against Covirán Granada and 74-78 in Lleida), while the Laguneros beat Baskonia 88-80 and saw their duel from last day suspended due to condensation in the Breogán pavilion.
Afterwards, Barça will face three duels in an intense week. On Wednesday they host Mike James’ powerful AS Monaco (8:30 p.m.), on Friday they visit Nikola Kalinic’s Red Star (8:00 p.m.) and on Sunday the 20th they will host Laso’s Baskonia in the Endesa League (6:30 p.m.).